Sorry, Joe, I have no background to the song. I know of Scott only from his beaut Howdy Skies CD with Tim O'Brien and as a session muso. I had been to the website linked by BigDaddy, but it doesn't shed any light on this song. It seems that Patty Loveless was drawn to it because her father 'worked at Federal Mines [Elkhorn City,KY], four miles into the earth, sometimes mining coal on his knees'.

--Stewie.