Saturday, November 30, 2013

Country Club 26: Hazel Dickens

Here's a  wonderful  song about working from the great Hazel Dickens.  If you like old-timey  country and bluegrass and have left-wing politics,  you probably like Dickens.

Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1935 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music." With Alice Gerrard, Dickens was one of the first women to record a bluegrass album.(wikipedia) [See also the allmusic.com  biography.]

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