Hazel Dickens, bluegrass pioneer who sang of miners and downtrodden, dies

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Washington Post

Hazel Dickens, a troubadour of hard times whose raw, heartfelt songs about coal miners and the life of the downtrodden made her a revered figure in country and bluegrass music, died April 22 at the Washington Home hospice in the District. She was 75 and had complications from pneumonia.

Ms. Dickens, who grew up in a three-room shack in West Virginia’s coal country, was a forceful voice of the working class, singing with unguarded emotion of poverty, labor and loss. She often appeared at union rallies and benefits for mineworkers, and her plaintive singing was heard in the Oscar-winning documentary “Harlan County U.S.A.” (1976) and John Sayles’s 1987 coal-mining drama “Matewan.”

“She is one of the absolutely finest and authentic singers we have,” music historian Charles Wolfe told The Washington Post in 2001. “Her singing has not only that ‘high lonesome sound,’ but you can hear the pain and anguish and the anger in it. It is absolutely heartfelt and sincere.”

Having supported herself since she was 16, Ms. Dickens brought a bracing real-world perspective to bluegrass songwriting and was among the first to address the plight of women in the workplace. She and her onetime singing partner, Alice Gerrard, were identified with the burgeoning women’s movement of the 1960s with such songs as “Working Girl Blues” and “Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There,” about a woman mistreated by men.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/hazel-dickens-bluegrass-pioneer-who-sang-of-miners-an

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[Ohio Joe]

1. RIP - nt

[dhill926]

2. raising a glass....

[Honeycombe8]

3. The name rings a bell, from some documentary on bluegrass I saw. BUT...

make no mistake, she was probably a diehard far righter, like most other hill country bluegrass people are, despite being poor blue collar workers. Think Loretta Lynn.

[carolinayellowdog]

4. She was in Harlan County USA and Matewan

It's a mistake to try to discredit a dead woman by broad-brush assumptions about what she "probably" was, based on geography.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Dickens

The written record is clear; we don't have to imagine her political perspective by conflating her with someone else.

[Honeycombe8]

5. Saying someone was probably a far righter is "discrediting" her?

The documentary I saw explained it. The bluegrass KY and thereabouts folks are descended, for the most part, from Irish immigrants. Remember the clog dance that Lorretta Lynn's mother did in the movie Coal Miner's Daughter? That's a take on the Irish "Riverdance" type of dancing that the Irish did.

They're descended from them, and contain an independent, you're-on-your-own streak, maing them conservative and anti-welfare in their views. There was no welfare for the extremely poor hill people. They were on their own, and proud of it.

They were also very religious, although many were no longer Catholics like their ancestors.

The music bluegrass also is derived from their ancestors' irish music.

It was a very interesting documentary.

But if Dickens was different from most of the others, then I stand corrected. I did lump her in with what the documentary said applied to "most." She may not even be of Irish descent. Not everyone in that area is.

[Chef Eric]

7. Yes, it is discrediting her.

She was a feminist, and she was pro-union. There's nothing "far right" about that, and to say otherwise is to discredit her.

[antigone382]

17. "Seeing a documentary" does not give you license to make presumptions about individual positions.

You are fundamentally wrong about Hazel Dickens' political orientations, and your statement does indeed discredit not only her, but other Appalachian activists whose efforts to raise awareness of ecological, economic, and social injustice in the area is frequently dismissed as the work of hippie outsiders at odds with the prevailing sentiments of the people--for example, the recently deceased Judy Bonds. Big coal has largely broken the back of union resistance in Appalachia, but it took more than a century, and the collusion of local, state, and national governments more interested in the money provided by cheap energy than the plight of the "culturally backward" natives.

Documentaries are perfectly capable of trafficking in useless and harmful stereotypes. One should try meeting actual people, or living in the region (as I do), before ignorantly and incorrectly presenting oneself as an authority.

[Chef Eric]

6. "Make no mistake?" You are the one making a mistake.

From the NY Times:

Ms. Dickens’s music, and especially her songwriting, assumed an even more political cast almost as soon as she began pursuing a solo career in 1976. Several of her songs, including “Coal Tattoo” and the rousing organizer’s anthem “They Never Keep Us Down,” served as the musical voice of conscience for Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning 1976 documentary , “Harlan County, U.S.A.”

A reluctant feminist role model, Ms. Dickens said she was originally scared to write about issues like sexism and the oppression of women.

“I can remember the first time I sang ‘Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Here There,’ ” she said in her 1999 No Depression interview. “I was at a party standing in the middle of all these men. It was here in Washington. Bob Siggins was playing banjo, and when I got done, everyone just looked at each other, and Bob said, ‘That’s a nice song, but I won’t be able to sing it.’ And I said, ‘Of course you can.’ ”

“We were writing about our own experience,” she explained. “They were things we needed to say.”

[mulsh]

8. You obviously never saw her perform.

she was far from a "die hard far righter". I was lucky enough to catch all of her performances at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. about the furthest "right" thing she'd say was that Warren Hellman is O>K. for a guy who's a boss. RIP Hazel, thanks for the music.

[Cal Carpenter]

10. LOL

The world must be so easy to navigate when you can put everyone in a box like that.

Good lord.

[BeyondGeography]

12. Go to YouTube, search, "Hazel Dickens, Black Lung"

Listen. Then come back here and apologize.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

14. you have no idea what you're talking about

Hazel ran with Pete Seeger's family. She was active in the fight against mountaintop removal. She was pro-union, anti-war and a feminist.
She was more liberal than most Democrats.

[Generic Other]

15. Pete and Mike Seeger were friends of hers

She is on the left. Union woman, feminist, rebel girl. You owe her an apology.

Black Lung
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujclf1-9cM

[Kolesar]

9. Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7005068&mesg_id=7005996

There's a man in a big house way up on the hill
Far, far from the shacks where the poor miners live.
He's got plenty of money, Lord, everything's fine
And he has forgotten the Mannington mine.
...
Could have been written about Massey Coal

[BeyondGeography]

11. An incredible voice

RIP to a great American artist.

[Omaha Steve]

13. I posted this video of her late yesterday after I heard the news

She will be missed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x576524

[senseandsensibility]

16. RIP and thank you

sister.