Markin comment:
This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.
**********
Mike Clark's 1980s Notes on "Women's Coal Mining Songs"
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Music
In his liner notes to the 1984 Rounder Records album "They'll Never Keep Us Down: Women's Coal Mining Songs," Mike Clark wrote the following:
"Three generations of Appalachian coal mining people are represented by the songs on this album, songs which grow directly out of the experiences of trying to build a union, improve a community, establish equality for women at the work place, or save a valley from the ravages of modern strip mining. Despite the time span of some 50 years from the period when "Which Side Are You On?" was written until 1981 when the most recent of these songs were finished, there is a remarkable consistency to the themes and ideas which are reflected here: a concern for the safety and future of loved ones; an appreciation for the value of family; a hope that a labor union can provide safe working conditions, decent wages and a dignified retirement; a sense of outrage that coal miners must fight so hard for the rights which many other citizens take for granted; and a belief that people working together can make a difference.
"It may be hard for people who live outside the coalfields to comprehend when such a region and such a people should produce a body of music which is, at the same time, so full of anger and exuberance, of determination and love, or sadness and joy. These songs were hewn out of the attempts of people who tried to improve their lives and found themselves facing the naked political and economic might of a vast and complex industrial system. The songs also come from a region where music has traditionally been used to express the hopes and concerns of daily life...
"...There is a key difference between talking in vague, general terms about the enormous power of large corporations and talking in very concrete terms about the abuse of power in a local community. Many of these songs came out of a local situation, a local problem. The songwriter responded to what was happening and it is this clear, personal statement which gives emotional power to the songs and which also helps us to understand and to identify with the people who are trying to change things."
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=6#ixzz0zMLTrNJb
No comments:
Post a Comment