The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #110196   Message #2313448
Posted By: Janie
11-Apr-08 - 11:55 PM
Thread Name: Info: Hazel Dickens
Subject: RE: Hazel Dickens
"Fly Away Pretty Bird" is a beautiful ballad, and ageless.

I don't think there is a more authentic recording of the hymn "A Few More Years" anywhere, although Mike Cross comes close.

If I do say so myself, my sister and I, (like Russ, we are expat. West Virginians) do an able rendition of "West Virginia, You Are My Home."

Russ, don't know that it should be the State song, but it definitely should be the State song for all of us who have gone but left a big piece of our hearts in those old hills.

I also particularly like to do "Custom-made Woman Blues."

I have to say I don't much like the straight bluegrass stuff she does. (And I like bluegrass, especially old bluegrass that still had a lot of hillbilly in it.) There are a couple of clips of Hazel on Youtube with a bluegrass band that I don't like at all. She is at her best singing with passion, and damps that down when with a band full of "hot licks" bluegrass musicians playing double time.

As an aside, Alice Gerard lives near me and is an acquaintance. I don't think she is at her best with bluegrass either.