Hazel Dickens RIP

Hazel Dickens, bluegrass pioneer who sang of miners and downtrodden, dies at 75 (but probably 85, according to her niece and a few other sources)

RIP to a master of what I think of fondly as "record collection country music". with the voice of a country superstar (in an alternate universe I can easily imagine her rising to fame alongside Kitty Wells) she paid loving homage to the music of her youth — the Coon Creek Girls, the Carter Family, Molly O'Day, the Louvin Brothers — with such wit and freshness that it's hard to even consider it revival music. the two albums she recorded with Alice Gerrard on Rounder are masterpieces of cross-cultural roots music, and her three solo albums and contributions to the Coal Mining Women comp aren't far behind. the only thing I'm not so keen on are the straight-ahead bluegrass albums she and Alice recorded on folkways in the mid-'60s. her feminist, unionist, left wing lyrics always made for an interesting contrast with the old sentimental songs she liked to cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-ggnZ7nqrY

and here she is alongside Bonnie Prince Billy in Matewan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJrNPxZsXk8

I'm a big fan, mostly of the two solo albums of hers I have - It's Hard To Tell The Singer From the Song and the amazingly titled Hard Hitting Songs For Hard Hit People. Underrated. R.I.P.

Starting at 3:00 or so, she talks about the "revival years" and how she thought it was strange to meet people who were calling it a folk revival when, in her estimation, you can't revive something that wasn't dead to begin with. She had so much guts as a songwriter, and such a beautiful voice. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnHssmH-XgU

She's totally fierce in "Fire in the Hole"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiGPbHnpQks&NR=1

Thanks for making this thread! I posted a couple of things on one of her few previous mentions on ILX but I should have made a real thread.

I have absolutely never, ever heard a voice like hers.

She was a big friend of Appalshop and of all the political singers in and around Highlander Center and all over southern Appalachia.

http://appalshop.org/news/2011-news/hazel-dickens-passes-away.html

I saw her a couple of times at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - wonderful singer. RIP