va - harlan county usa- songs of the coal miner's struggle artist: Various title: harlan county usa- songs of the coa label: Roudner Records type: Compilation genre: Rock source: CDDA tracks: 22 time: 01:10:50 size: 87.68 MB bitrate: 206kbps mode: VBR location: USA url: http://www.amazon.com/Harlan-County-USA-Miners-Struggle/dp/B000F7CEDY rip date: 10/1/2006 street date: 5/23/2006 1. hazel dickens - coal tattoo 2:59 2. old home string band ft. tracy schwarz - shut 3:40 up in the mines of coal creek 3. sarah ogan gunning - come all you coal miners 1:57 4. johnson mountain boys - blue diamond mines 5:12 5. hazel dickens - the yablonski murder 2:57 6. norman blake - last train from poor valley 3:42 7. hazel dickens - black lung 3:21 8. merle travis - dark as a dungeon 3:01 9. country cooking - trouble among the yearlings 2:05 10. phyllis boyens - phyllis boyens 2:56 11. nimrod workman - coal black mining blues 2:19 12. hazel dickens - coal miner's grave 5:29 13. jim garland - the death of harry simms 3:52 14. hazel dickens - mannington mine disaster 4:34 15. connie & babe - cruel willie 3:16 16. sarah ogan gunning - hard working miner 3:12 17. phyllis boyens - dream of a miner's child 2:25 18. doc watson - and am i born to die 3:32 19. hazel dickens - clay county miner 4:35 20. j.p. fraley - one morning in may 1:23 21. florence reese - which side are you on? 1:41 22. hazel dickens - they'll never keep us down 2:42 Anyone who's paid attention has known well before the Sago mining disaster that the plight of the coal miner remains one of the most shameful and tragic in American industry. Many of the songs on this collection were on the soundtrack of Barbara Kopple's wrenching, Academy Award-winning documentary from 1976, Harlan County USA, and, sadly, have only become more resonant and relevant with the mounting tally of mining disasters. Those tracks have been supplemented by related recordings by the likes of Norman Blake, Doc Watson, and Merle Travis (performing his own legendary contribution to the coal-mining song, the spare, stark, and sobering "Dark as a Dungeon"). Those who saw Kopple's film will remember Hazel Dickens's plaintive, earthy performances, which made her a one-woman Greek chorus signaling the hard times and struggles ahead. She's featured on 7 of the 22 cuts here, and those are all powerful, especially her a cappella cry of the heart, "Black Lung," about the physical ravages that left one miner questioning God's mercy. The daily drudgery and the daily exploitation by "the capitalist system" are explicitly detailed and cursed in Sarah Ogan Gunning's searing, a cappella activist anthem, "Come All You Coal Miners," and the violence visited on reformers is recounted by Dickens in "The Yablonski Murder," on which her outrage and anger are set against a loping, easygoing bluegrass arrangement that contrasts with the horror of the "cold-blooded murder" the singer describes. Country Cooking supplies a lighthearted moment via a sprightly mandolin-fiddle duet on "Trouble Among the Yearlings," but otherwise this collection brooks no frivolity -- after all, lives are at stake.