Coal Mine Songs

Subject: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:38 PM

That thread about number 9 coal got me to thinking. What are some really good coal mining songs.

16 tons - Merle Travis
You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive -- Darrel Scott
King Coal -- I can't remember who did this one. Any help?
Miner's Prayer -- Same on this one

Please noone say Working in the Coal mine lol

I know there are alot more but I can't really think of them right now.
cya
JT

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Goose Gander
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:41 PM

'Last Payday at Coal Creek'

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:44 PM

Who did that one?

I also loved Payday Comes To Slow by Merle Travis

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:49 PM

You'll never leave Harlan alive by Darrell Scott

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:56 PM

The Hole in Oak Hill (that goes down, down, down)

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: bankley
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 04:56 PM

'Loading Coal' Johnny Cash

'Dark as a Dungeon' Merle Travis

'Big John' Jimmy Dean

'I'm Just an old Chunk of Coal' John Anderson

"It's a Working Man I am" Rita MacNeil

Kathy Mattea's last CD is called 'Coal', stark...

and there's gotta be a lot of Welsh mining songs

thanks for posting the Darrell Scott song... and hipping me to it... it's beautiful... a diamond...

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:01 PM

There are some songs by Ed Pickford on a separate thread.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:02 PM

I know man that song hit me hard when I first heard it. Now it is stuck in my head something fierce lol. My brother listens to it everyday as he drives to the mine. He told me that the other day.

Old Chunk Of Coal is actually a song written by Billy Joe Shaver. The same guy that wrote Georgia on a Fast train (your song right now lol) and HonkyTonk Heros for Waylon Jennings. I did some gigs with him a few years back. He was a big figure in the 1970's outlaw movement in Nashville. I swear the Outlaws were some of my immortal heros lol. The punks of country you know. You know me man I love rebellion lol
cya
JT

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: sharyn
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:04 PM

"Blue Diamond Mines" (Jean Ritchie?)

Jean Ritchie has another one that's sung more often, starts out, "Did you see him going, it was early this morning" I don't recall that title.

Bob Dylan's "North Country Bluwa" is pretty good, too.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: bankley
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:12 PM

yeah, I heard Billy Joe was quite the scrapper at one time.. I just checked out Brad Paisley's version of Y.N.L.Harlan Alive, some good pix in there... but Darrell's the Man with that one.... haunting, I can see how it sticks

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: bfdk
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:24 PM

Seamus Kennedy's 'My Father Was a Miner'. Great song!

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:28 PM

Coal Tattoo by Billy Edd Wheeler is a must do as is The L & N Don't Stop Here Any More.

Don

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:29 PM

There's a rather wonderful little book called "The Music of Coal"--photoessays about southern Appalachian mining and two fine CDs, featuring both field recordings and good contemporary performances.
$35 and well worth it. Available from CAMSCO, of course (who also carries a bunch of very good recordings of mining songs CDs--check out camscomusic.com and, in the search section, look for a keyword "mining"

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:32 PM

Yeah man Shaver was about as wild as they come. He was (and still is I imagine) a really cool guy though just don't push him lol. He is a great writer for hardcore country without a doubt. Me and Chris Knight used to play some of his songs when we did covers. I was hard up (imagine that lol) needing a gig while Chris and I were waiting for Decca to release our CD and a friend hooked me up with Shaver because his son Eddie was sick and couldn't make some gigs. Shaver already knew my work with Chris because he really dug what we were doing. All of the old outlaws took us right under thier wings man. I will never forget the day Willie Nelson told me and Chris we were cut from the same mold as him. Of course I was too rowdy at the time to pay much attention but now I cherish it lol.I loved it man it was an experience to say the least.
cya
JT

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:32 PM

The Jean Ritchie song above, I believe is called "West Virginia Mining Disaster". She's another called "Black Waters"

Barry

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Bernard
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:33 PM

The Coal and Albert Berry - Ted Edwards
Coal Hole Cavalry - Ted Edwards
Weepin' an' Wailin' Away - Ted Edwards
Dance, Dance - Ted Edwards

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:34 PM

Thanks Dick I would love to have that.

L&N man that is a blast from the past. One of my grandfathers worked for them until he retired (well it switched to CSX before he retired) and my Dad worked on L&N before he went to the mine. That just conjured up some memories. Where is here?

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Rex
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:49 PM

Springhill Mine Disaster is a powerful song. I believe Peggy Seeger wrote it. Its in the database.

Rex

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 05:52 PM

I keep forgetting the database lol duh Looks like by now I would remember it.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: GUEST,Cup of Tea - No Cookies
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 06:42 PM

Jez Lowe has written some dandy coal mining songs: Black Diamonds is fun to sing - Cindy Mangsen does a great version of it on Songlines & she covers the above mentioned West Virginia Mine Disaster on Long Time Traveling. I believe there are more Jez Lowe mining songs, but I likely have them on cassette & not CD and can't pull them up like the goodies on my iPod.

John Prine's Paradise is more about the after effects of coal mining, than the work itself.

Rick Fielding singing Pitman Blues on Lifeline - don't know whose song is but properly dismal:
"down in the mine
you're chalking up your time
on the back of a tombstone kid
don't you bother saving for your old age
if you do like your old man did"

Craig Johnson's Way Down the Road covered by Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt on Closing the Distance is lovely and a pleasure to sing along with, despite the sadness of it.

Draglines is one where the melody seems much more chipper than the lyrics

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 06:53 PM

Hi-
re: The Music of Coal

Here's the tracklist(s) (2 CD)
Volume one

   1. "Down in a Coal Mine (Excerpt)" - 1:25
          * The Edison Concert Band
   2. "Mining Camp Blues" - 2:59
          * Trixie Smith
   3. "Sprinkle Coal Dust on My Grave" - 2:46
          * Orville Jenks
   4. "Coal Miner's Blues" - 3:04
          * The Carter Family
   5. "Hard Times in Coleman's Mine" - 2:36
          * Aunt Molly Jackson
   6. "He's Only a Miner Killed in the Ground" - 2:35
          * Ted Chestnut
   7. "Coal Black Mining Blues" - 1:13
          * Nimrod Workman
   8. "'31 Depression Blues" - 2:52
          * Ed Sturgill
   9. "Prayer of a Miner's Child" - 1:51
          * Dock Boggs
10. "That Twenty-Five Cents You Paid" - 2:25
          * Sarah Ogan Gunning
11. "The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore" - 3:10
          * Jean Ritchie
12. "Dark as a Dungeon" - 1:55
          * Merle Travis
13. "Come All You Coal Miners" - 2:21
          * The Reel World String Band
14. "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" - 0:22
          * Mike Kline
15. "Thirty Inch Coal" - 2:36
          * Hobo Jack Adkins
16. "Black Waters" - 3:38
          * Jim Ringer
17. "Roof Boltin' Daddy" - 2:26
          * Gene Carpenter
18. "Dream of a Miner's Child" - 2:46
          * Carter Stanley
19. "Coal Miner's Boogie" - 2:57
          * George Davis
20. "The Yablonski Murder" - 3:00
          * Hazel Dickens
21. "What Are We Gonna Do?" - 3:01
          * Dorothy Myles
22. "Explosion at Derby Mine" - 4:02
          * Charlie Maggard
23. "Blind Fiddler" - 3:05
          * Jim "Bud" Stanley
24. "Loadin' Coal" - 2:29
          * John Hutchison
25. "Coal Town Saturday Night" - 3:06
          * Randall Hylton
26. "It's Been a Long Time" - 3:15
          * Sonny Houston & Roger Hall
27. "Fountain Filled with Blood" - 3:56
          * Elder James Caudill & Choir

[edit] Volume two

   1. "West Virginia Mine Disaster" - 2:48
          * Molly Slemp
   2. "Union Man" - 3:36
          * Blue Highway
   3. "Blue Diamond Mines" - 4:26
          * Robin & Linda Williams
   4. "Set Yourself Free" - :50
          * Billy Gene Mullins
   5. "Redneck War" - 5:22
          * Ron Short
   6. "Sixteen Tons" - 2:32
          * Ned Beatty
   7. "There Will Be No Black Lung in Heaven" - 2:05
          * Rev. Joe Freeman
   8. "Deep Mine Blues" - 3:45
          * Nick Stump
   9. "I'm a Coal Mining Man" - 2:22
          * Tom T. Hall
10. "Dirty Black Coal" - 4:27
          * Kenneth Davis
11. "Black Lung" - 3:21
          * A.J. Roach
12. "Coal Dust Kisses" - 4:06
          * Suzanne Mumpower-Johnson
13. "Coal Tattoo" (Billy Edd Wheeler) - 4:06
          * Dale Jett
14. "A Strip Miner's Life" - 3:00
          * Don Stanley & Middle Creek
15. "Daddy's Dinner Bucket" - 3:26
          * Ralph Stanley II
16. "In Those Mines" - 3:43
          * Valerie Smith
17. "Miner's Prayer" - 3:14
          * Ralph Stanley & Dwight Yoakam
18. "Dyin' To Make A Livin'" - 3:47
          * W.V. Hill
19. "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" - 6:06
          * Darrell Scott
20. "They Can't Put It Back" - 2:31
          * Jack Wright
21. "Which Side Are You On?" - 5:04
          * Natalie Merchant

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: sharyn
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 06:54 PM

Now seems as good a time as any to mention one I wrote, simply titled "Coal Mining Song," to be found in the DT (it might or might not be the legitimate version -- I added a verse a few years ago and asked for an update, but I haven't looked at it lately.

Sharyn aka Sharyn Dimmick

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: sharyn
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 06:59 PM

Yep, just checked. The DT has this verse missing -- by the way, the real structure is double verses. The missing verse, then, is verse 4 and goes like this:

A miner will tell you it's hard to live here
All he's got are the mountains, the streams running clear,
But mountains are crumbling and streams turning black
And when you move a mountain you can't put it back
And it's raining, it's pouring, the mountain comes down
And forty-two miners are trapped underground.
The company man says they'll get them on time.
But he's on the T.V. and not in the mine.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 06:59 PM

Yeah Paradise is more of a post mining song. The town of Paradise (no longer there thanks to TVA) is right in the heart of mining country though. You have to drive by several mines to get there. Or get to where it used to be.
cya
JT

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 07:00 PM

The Mountain by Steve Earle is another great song

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: bfdk
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 07:03 PM

Coal Tattoo.. that jogged my memory. Australian group Wongawilli have one called 'Coal Dust Tattoos' on their latest CD Australia Street. Written by Pat Keegan, it says.

As for coal mining disaster songs, there's an entire thread about the Aberfan tragedy, lots of songs mentioned, some with lyrics.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 08:30 PM

"They'll Never Keep Us Down; Women's Coal Mining Songs"
on Rounder #4012

1. Coal Mining Woman - Hazel Dickens (Hazel Dickens)                
2. Blue Diamond Mines - Phyllis Boyens (Jean Ritchie)                
3. Dreadful Memories - Sarah Gunning (?)                        
4. Yablonski Murder - Hazel Dickens (?)                        
5. Lawrence Jones - Phyllis Boyens (Si Kahn)                        
6. Draglines - Reel World String Band (Deborah Silverstein)
7. Coal Miner's Grave - Hazel Dickens (Hazel Dicken)                
8. Come All You Coal Miners - Sarah Gunning                        
9. Black Lung - Hazel Dickens (?)                        
10. Dream of a Miner's Child - Phyllis Boyens (adapted by Phyllis Boyens, Hazel Dickens & Ken Irwin)                        
11. The Mannington Mine Disaster - Hazel Dickens (?)                
12. That 25 Cents That You Paid - Sarah Gunning (?)                
13. Clay County Miner - Hazel Dickens (?)                        
14. Clara Sullivan's Letter - Hazel Dickens (?)                        
15. What She Aims to Be - Reel World String Band (Sue Massek)        
16. Coal Tattoo - Hazel Dickens (Billy Ed Wheeler)                
17. Hello Coal Miner - Sarah Gunning (Sarah Gunning)        
18. The Battle of Jericol - Reel World String Band (Mary Lou Layne)19. Which Side Are You On? - Florence Reece (Florence Reece)        
20. They'll Never Keep Us Down - Hazel Dickens (Hazel Dickens                        

There were only 12 cuts on the 1984 LP that I have. The 8 new cuts I don't know who wrote.

Barry

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 08:45 PM

Does anyone know the history of The Mannington Mine Disaster? I live about 4 miles from Mannington Kentucky. I have never heard that song and was just wondering.

I know in Mannington Ky there was a disaster years ago (early 1900's maybe) and 67 men (I think that was the number at least what I heard) died in the mine after an explosion. They couldn't get in to get them out so they are all still in there. Is that what this song is about? If so I have to hear it.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 08:56 PM

I found it. It was Mannington West Virginia. In Appalchian states man it is the same story and not always different names. Mannington Ky had the same thing happen to it. In Nortonville Ky (4 miles north of Mannington) where I live 28 men died in the mine from an explosion. In Browder Ky 40+ men died from an explosion just 17 miles or so from Nortonville and Mannington Ky. Wheatcroft Ky in the 90's around 30 miles from Nortonville and Mannington 40+ died in an explosion. I lost family and friends in that one. That was the blast that inspired me to write Ghost of Appalachia that is on my myspace page. It is just part of life around here and throughout any of the coal states.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: GEST
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 09:42 PM

Here are a few from GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador:
The Mountain Is Gone
Twenty-Five Miners
A Place We Call Home
Goodbye To Saint Lawrence
Dark As A Dungeon
The Rawdon Hills
My INCO Hat
Blackleg Miner
The Mines Of Avondale
Swingin' And Diggin'
Little Darling

Subject: Lyr Add: RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (Billy Edd Wheeler)
From: Kent Davis
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 11:20 PM

"Red-winged Blackbird" is my favorite. It's found on Kathy Mattea's CD "Coal" http://www.mattea.com/KathyMatteaHome2008.html and also on "Voices" by Herdman/Hills/Mangsen http://www.mystrands.com/album/34503

It doesn't seem to be in the D.T.

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
(Billy Ed Wheeler)


Oh, can't you see that pretty little bird
Singin' with all his heart and soul
He's got a blood-red spot on his wing
And all of the rest of him's black as coal.


Of all the colours I ever did see
Red and black are the ones I dread
For when a man spills blood on the coal
They carry him down from the coal mines dead.


Oh, fly away you red-winged bird
Leave behind the miner's wife
She'll dream about you when you're gone
She'll dream about you all her life.


Oh, can't you see that pretty little bird
Singin' with all his heart and soul
He's got a blood-red spot on his wing
And all of the rest of him's black as coal.

Kent

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Kent Davis
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 11:44 PM

Blind Alfred Reed's "Explosion in the Fairmont Mines" seems to be a re-working of "Dream of a Miner's Child". Here's a video of John Lilly, editor of GOLDENSEAL magazine, performing it.

http://trailerstarlounge.ning.com/video/john-lilly-explosion-in-the

My speakers aren't working, so I can't vouch for the the sound quality of the clip. Here's a link to a CD with the song: http://www.properamerican.com/006.html

Kent

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 02:39 AM

Check out ' 100 Songs of Toil ' by Karl Dallas, great section on coal mining songs, mostly traditional and lots by Tommy Armstrong who was known as The Pitmans Poet.



Dave H

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 04:17 AM

Of course there is also A.L.Lloyd's "Come All Ye Bold Miners"

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: mouldy
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 05:49 AM

One that affects me is "The Colliers" by Seth Lakeman, based on the Gresford mining disaster. I first heard it 2 years ago, barely 3 weeks after my husband was killed in a mine explosion in Siberia, in a very similar way to the song, and in a similar scale disaster.

I find it very hard to listen to many of the songs now.

Andrea

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: richd
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 06:00 AM

Bankley wrote:

'and there's gotta be a lot of Welsh mining songs....'

for some reason, there don't seem to be a lot of older Welsh mining songs, and not too many modern ones either. There's songs sung by Dave Burns, like Maerdy (Last Pit in the Rhondda), 'Roll on The Day', and the words to 'The Bells of Rhymney, by Idris Davies who was a Collier. There's also a number of sentimental songs by Max Boyce, including 'Dew its Hard' and 'The pit head baths a Supermarket Now' Tracy Curtis, an activist and singer from Ammanford sings 'Amman Valley Miners'. As far as I know there's nothing equivalent to either the miners' songs of the NE of England or of the States. My Grandafther, who was a miner a singer and Union activist and my father who was a collier didn't sing anything directly about mining, and there doesn't seem to a history of union songs as a means of propaganda as there is in the States.The only song about a Welsh subject in either of the two books mentioned by the Daves' above is 'The Gresford Disaster' Where organising songs like these are needed then it tends to be American songs. The repertoire of Welsh Choirs tends to be mix of light opera, Spiritituals and Welsh Hymns. The hymns are another matter- tales of a people held in bondage, forced to slave for an oppressor etc, and its these that I've heard sung in times of dire need, but apart from that its the first verse of the Red Flag and Mae Hen Wlad.In contemporary terms, there's only a couple of pits left, the rest is open cast/mountain top scrape which people don't sing about. The music scene for younger people in the old mining town where I live is thriving, but not with songs about mining. It's heavy metal, with little reflection and could have been produced anywhere. I don't know in detail about the experience of the Welsh Language speaking part of the coalfield, beyond what friends tell me, but it seems to be much the same.

The problem with most of the songs about the Aberfan Disaster is that they are not Welsh mining songs, but song about Wales.

What was sung was hymns. Welsh Hymns, lots of them

Now, what i hope is that someone will come along and tell me how wrong I am and provide a list of wonderful songs and singers!

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: bankley
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 07:52 AM

thanks richd... maybe those most affected didn't want to much revisit these things in song....

case in point.... The Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia in 1972, when the dam holding back a lake of coal sludge broke, after heavy rains and wiped out the town... 125 killed, many more injured and left homeless... two of my friends from Ireland found out about this through some W.Va musicians... did their research and wrote a song called 'Blackwater' They visited the community later on, played a small concert there and presented their song... it opened up a lot of feelings in the listeners that had mostly been buried for years..but they were very grateful that somebody had set their story to words and music... when they were all but forgotten by everyone else esp. the Company and Gov't... there were settlements, but really a few crumbs was just another insult... anyhow, I'll leave you with the 1st two verses... and Jayto, I'll send you an MP3 of it


       "I don't sleep well when it rains
         Just feel the raindrops beat the ground
         And I'm back there running from the horror
         Everytime I hear that sound

         From deep inside the mountain cried
         As stinkin' mud began to slide
         One crumblin' dam just couldn't hold
         Blackwater back anymore"

'Blackwater' by Enda Cullen , Ian Smith...

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Mick Tems
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 08:27 AM

Mining Songs From Wales

Yr Wyf I Little Collier (Calennig)
When The Coal Comes From The Rhondda (Calennig, additional words Mick Tems)
When April Came To Rhymney (Idris Davies, tune Mick Tems)
The Miner's Life (to the tune of Calon Lan, Mick Tems)
The Pontypridd Collier In Search Of His Wife (Mick Tems)
Can Y Streic (Song Of The Strike, tune Mick Tems)
Heroes, Rhondda Heroes
Working Today, Sir (South Wales)
The Miner's Doom (tune: Adieu To Dear Cambria)
A Tale Of Two Rivers (words and tune, Mick Tems)
A Bitter Cry For Help
New Song Of The Lock-Out In South Wales
A Song On The Present Lock-Out In South Wales and Monmouthshire Mines
Abernant
The Awful Explosion At Mardy
Can Ar Y Lock-Out
Can Newydd
The Colliery Explosion at Pennygraig (sic)

Jon Heslop, who witnessed the 1984 strike when he lived in South Wales, wrote the classic Old Soldiers. He wrote The Blackleg Drivers as a protest against the Thatcher-approved illegal motorway convoys as a consequence of the miners' strike.

Sorry, but I don't have enough time to list a proper catalogue.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TAMWORTH COLLIER (Drummond Smith)
From: Ythanside
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 09:11 AM

The Tamworth Collier

I am a jolly collier lad,
From Kettlebrook just like me Dad,
And I've worked at pits both good and bad,
And I'm proud to be a miner.

ch.
Swing yer pick and the coal is fallin',
Shovel it quick and clear yer stallin',
Gie it some stick and bear the maulin',
Down on the face yer a different race,
And there ain't no grace when yer diggin' up coal.

I was just fourteen years of age
When first I dropped in a mining cage,
Scared to death for a paltry wage
As I learned to be a miner.

Along the cut in the snow and sleet
In me boots too big for me bony feet.
From a wintry morning down to the heat
I went to be a miner.

But the Glascote lads were golden then,
All decent honest gentle men,
And I wish to God they were here again
That taught me to be a miner.

Along the Watlin' I did go,
To the face at the Coppice, down below,
Swingin' me lamp where the trees do grow
To the roof above the miner.

I've been a miner all me days,
And seen things change in many ways,
But, looking back through the dusty haze,
I'm glad I was a miner.

written by Drummond Smith

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 09:35 AM

I hope this has not been mentioned yet:
Don't go down in the mine, Dad (It's also in the Digitrad
Click here

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Musket
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 10:42 AM

Never did sing mining songs myself, probably through having been a miner many years ago.

However, the BBC radio ballad "The Big Hewer" contains many wonderful songs that Ewan McColl wrote for the radio ballad. I used to have it on tape, (open reel....) but lost it over the years.

Some of the songs appear on "Songs from the Radio Ballads - Ewan McColl & Peggy Seeger, Vols 1 & 2" that you can get via the BBC still, but the actual radio ballads? Perhaps somebody knows if they are available?

It has it's own thread but The Ballad of Springhill, whilst relating a disaster in Nova Scotia, is a sensitive poweful song, and shows Ewan & Peggy at their joint song writing best.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 12:09 PM

Many of the radioi ballads have been issued on CD

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Musket
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 12:36 PM

Must admit it was a while since I last searched. Must try again,

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 12:49 PM

Cropper Lads

Down Boys Down

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: DonMeixner
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:15 PM

Tom,

I think that is more correctly entitled "The Dream of the Miner's Child". It is in my Bradley Kincaid song book as such anyway.

A great song. Not specifically about coal I don't believe but any mining song could be construed as a coal mining song I supose.

Don

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:19 PM

THe Radio Ballads are all on CD. Available from CAMSCO. Of course.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 01:53 PM

Not that I'm an real expert on mine songs - but:

Close the Coalhouse Door
Miner's Lifeguard
Byker Hill
Collier Lad (come a kissing me)
Collier Lad (We can hew, boys, we can hack it out, etc)

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: GUEST,Murray on Saltspring
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 03:52 PM

Don't forget "The High Blantyre Disater" from the west of Scotland.

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: TonyK
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 10:35 PM

I was fortunate enough to catch a few cuts from Jewell Ridge Coal, a new CD by Jeni and Billy on the WJFF radio show Ballads and Banjos. She's the granddaughter of a miner and her song writing and the sound or her voice is right out of the hills. It's excellant. I haven't been able to put it away for weeks. Tazewell Beauty Queen is my favorite cut. http://www.jeniandbilly.com/music.html

Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs
From: Jayto
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 11:15 PM

I appreciate all of ya'll listing these songs for me. I have never heard of the majority of them. I have my hands full now hearing and tyring to learn them.
Thanks
JT