July 4th 2026, After 250 Years America And American Democracy Are Under Attack From Within!

Today, July 4th, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of American Democracy and America and American Democracy are more endangered today than we have ever been. That danger is centered in the White House, being directed by Fascists inside the White House. Let's just look at a few recent headline stories from across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union has worked to defend and protect American Democracy every day since its founding in 1920, 106 years. Almost ten months ago,that organization posted this story on their website. While a headline which screams "How Trump's Attacks On Our Democracy Put America At Risk" should be shocking, rare, and terrifying, headlines and stories about the danger which TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" pose for us and our Democracy, they are so commonplace since June 16, 2015, that millions of Americans ignore them totally. This so-called "second administration" of TRAITOR Trump is doing a great deal of things which previous FASCISTS and would be dictators have been doing since atleast 250 years ago, and millions of Americans insist on claiming that all they do is in the best interest of the country. The ACLU story in particular is and should be chilling to any lover of this country and our Democracy. Early in the story it states "There is now a coordinated assault on the constitutional architecture that has sustained American democracy. This assault should alarm anyone who values constitutional governance and the personal freedoms we so often take for granted." That should terrify every citizen in this country and it does not. The formerly sacred institutions of American government are now being utilized to install FASCISM in the country and most people do not understand that fact. The article moves on to state that Federal agents have repeatedly detained or arrested public officials conducting legitimate oversight, including Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, and Senator Alex Padilla, who was tackled and detained for asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions. Students, including green card holders, have been detained and threatened with deportation for writing op-eds or expressing views that deviate from what the administration deems acceptable.

In some ways, the facts in this previous quotation from the ACLU article are now old hat since the article is more than 8 months old. We have seen ICE agents murder two people who were peaceful protestors in Minnesota and little or no outrage has been seen in the general populace. We are now seeing several Americans charged with vandalism and other crimes for touching a $16million dollar disaster at the Reflecting Pool literally in sight of one of our nation's most hallowed shrines to Democracy, the Lincoln Memorial. An Olympian who once epitomized American values to the watching world has been charged in an overt act of domestic terrorism in order to silence opposition to TRAITOR Trump and his TREASONOUS enforcers who, after giving a multi-million dollar secret and unvetted contract to one of his supporters, to repair the reflecting pool did a damn fine job of gravely damaging that symbol of American Democracy. And nobody seems to care.

An active duty American Air Force Major was arrested on July 2, 2026, in his full uniform for using his constitutional right to free speech to openly criticize TRAITOR Trump's actions in Venezuela. That was a direct violation of the US Constitution for anyone, whether in uniform or not, to be arrested for utilizing free speech to question what are clearly two totally unjustified wars against two countries with the basic intent to steal their assets such as oil, gas, rare earth minerals, and other valuable possessions of two sovereign nations. Major Jason Watson knew full well that he had chosen to end his military career before he opened his mouth that day. It should be a shock to every living American of sound mind when such a career military officer finds it necessary to willingly give up a career in which he has volunteered to literally place his life on the line to defend this nation. But it has not been seen as a shock to most people in this country. Most people are either to uneducated, uncaring, or ignorant to understand that such a person would find it necessary to place his life on the line, as he swore to do when he was inducted into the US Air Force, in such a manner contrary to the publicly stated intent of the people who have disastrously found themselves in charge of this country's military. Major Jason Watson is much more an American Hero today than he has ever been before when he willing complying with orders to participate in war crimes and international terrorism against Venezuela and Iran. The former Olympian David Hearn is now much more an American Hero than he ever was as an Olympic canoeist. Both these men, both those murdered citizens in Minnesota, and every other American who has simpley stood up in a No Kings Day Protest is much more a loyal American patriot than any of the hired thugs who arrested or murdered them.

Today, July 4th, 2026, America and American Democracy are far more endangered than they ever were in any of our previous wars. Democracy is being attacked in ways it never was by Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, or Emperor Hirohito of Japan. We are under attack from those who are allowed to walk freely every day into the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the US Supreme Court and all of our government departments to pretend they are "making America great again". Those people, TRAITOR Trump and his many minions, are the most dangerous enemies America has ever faced. It is long past time for every American citizen to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out in defense of our Democracy or it will be lost forever long before November 2028.

Two Separate, But Connected Visits To Two State Capitols, West Virginia And Alabama

On two separate, but politically interconnected visits to the capitols of West Virginia and Alabama, I saw two things, one in each capitol, which showed me a great deal about the thought processes and actions of the political leaders in both states. What I saw in each capitol was connected to the sight I saw in the other in a way which was very educational for me and should have been so for anyone else who saw what I saw. The headline in this story from the Los Angeles Times tells succinctly what had happened in West Virginia. Former three term governor Arch Moore had been found guilty and sentenced of mail fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice and filing false income taxes during his 1984 and 1988 campaigns and during his third term, from 1985-89. On July 11, 1990, he was sentenced to a term of five years and ten months in prison and fined $170,000. He was ordered to serve his time in the Federal Correctional Instution in Petersburg, Virginia. I don't remember the exact date on which I subsequently made a visit to Charleston, West Virginia, and visited the West Virginia Cultural Center near the Capitol building which I have done nearly ever time I take a trip to Charleston. But I believe that visit was probably sometime late in 1990 not long after his sentencing. Arch Moore was depicted for several years in alarger than life marble bust which had sat since its original installation in the mezzanine level of the grand entrance to the Cultural Center. The bust sat against the rear wall of the mezzanine until some time after this visit, and I had seen it many times on other visits to the Capitol. As I climbed the stairs to the mezzanine and turned the corner to face the site of the bust, I saw a three sided box made of sheets of white painted plywood surrounding the area at the center of the rear wall where the bust had always been displayed. I thought "well, they removed his bust..but what have they put in its place". I walked over to the plywood box and saw that a thin crack had been left where two sheets of the plywood joined. I put my face close to that crack, and lo and behold there in the space which the plywood box surrounded was the bust still on scene after his incarceration. I laughed and walked away to finish my tour of the facility. Some months later, I returned to the Cultural Center and found that the bust was no longer there and neither was the plywood box. I have alway assumed that considering the size and weight of the huge bust, the management of the Cultural Center must have had the bust hidden until they could acquire a fork lift to lower it to the ground level of the grand entrance. The entire rear wall of the mezzanine has been used as a small art gallery ever since the removal. Google AI claims that the bust is still in the Cultural Center but I know better. I have never seen it since that sight of it hidden behind the plywood box.

In the late summer or early fall of 1993, my wife and I took a vacation to Montgomery, Alabama, where we toured three major historic sites: the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama State Capitol, and the graves of Hank and Audrey Williams. Inside the Capitol, along a couple of walls was a portrait gallery of the governors of the state. This visit was shortly after former Governor Guy Hunt had been found guilty in April 1993 of misusing inaugural funds in a criminal case which bore some similarity to the Arch Moore case. Guy Hunt was sentenced by a Montgomery judge to five years of probation, 1,000 hours of community service, and ordered to pay a $211,000 fine. Naturally, he appealed his sentence. The eventual outcome of that appeals process will be discussed shortly. Hunt had been indicted on December 28, 1992, Hunt on 13 felony charges, and wound up having most of them eventually dropped. He was eventually convicted on one charge in which the prosecution claimed he had taken $200,000 out of his 1987 inaugural fund which all consisted of private or corporate political donations intended to be spent on the inaugural festivities. The charge claimed that he had stolen the money for his own personal use. When we visited the Capitol and walked along viewing the portraits of all the governors of Alabama, we came upon an empty spot on the wall between the portraits of his immediate predecessor and successor. The wall around this space was still visibly more stained by time than the rectangular area which had previously held Hunt's portrait. I have no idea where the portrait had been taken, and I have never been back in the Alabama Capitol since that single visit. The following section of Guy Hunt's biography on the internet based "Encyclopedia of Alabama" describes the ultimate actions which followed his initial conviction and sentencing:

In June 1997, Hunt won his first victory in the matter when the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles approved a pardon for him on grounds of innocence. For the pardon to be valid, however, it needed to be signed by a judge or district attorney, but no one willing could be found. Even the recently elected Republican attorney general, Bill Pryor, refused to sign the pardon, arguing that he did not believe his office held that right or power. Then in a stunning defeat, when Hunt requested that probation be terminated shortly before it was due to expire in 1998, circuit judge Sally Greenhaw extended it for five more years because Hunt had been able to pay only $4,200 of the fine and court costs assessed against him. On March 30, 1998, however, Hunt's probation was lifted when his attorney presented a check to the court for the entire balance. Sympathetic Alabamians, both Democrats and Republicans, had helped Hunt raise the needed funds. The next day, the Board of Pardons and Paroles again pardoned Hunt on grounds of innocence, and because probation had been terminated, no affirming signature was needed. The following day, Hunt qualified to run for the Republican nomination for governor.

I cannot fully decide just how similar and how different these two cases and their ultimate handling by the powers that be in West Virginia and Alabma are, but both have been forever imprinted in my memory, and both are forever connected in my mind. Two state governors from two politically (now) similar states were charged and convicted of political corruption in their states during their terms of office. The outcomes were somewhat different despite the convictions. You can make up your own minds whether either or both of these cases was/were handled appropriately. If there are political lessons to be learned from these two men and their criminal convictions, I sincerely hope all of us can figure out what those lessons are.

Closure of The Federal Medical Center Prison In Lexington--How Many Jobs Will Be Lost

On July 1, 2026, WKYT-27 announced that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had announced in a press release that they were planning to close the Federal Medical Center or at least a portion of it called the Satelitte Camp on Leestown Road in Lexington. The press release from the Bureau of Prisons refers to the facility as a satellite camp which is a minimization of the history and the ongoing importance of this prison. It was one of six facilities on a list of six proposed closures. This facility has been in Lexington and Fayette County since 1935 and is one of the most well known prisons in the nation. It began as a federal drug treatment facility and was also a leading research facility in the effort to successfullly treat alcohol and drug addictions for most of its long and productive life. During the 1940's to 1980's, the facility was frequently the point of incarceration and treatment for many famous people. During the period when heroine was widely connected to the jazz music scene, numerous famous musicians who had become addicted,eventually arrested on federal drug charges, and convicted.

In the 1970's, I used to be a regular visitor to the facility along with other members of the substance abuse treatment community in Lexington and as part of my commitment to the treatment of addictive behaviors. I met several interesting people during those visits although I have to admit that I never met any of the more famous people who were incarcerated there over the years. But I did meet a man who claimed to have been the prisoner at Walpole, Massachusetts, who picked up and carried the firearms to their eventual user which were key to the Walpole prison riot,one of the worst prison riots in the history of the country. I also met one of the early American airline hijackers who told a fascinating story about his crime and incarceration. He was a traveling salesman at the time he committed the hijacking and also a chronic alcoholic. He said that he took a flight for business reasons at a time when he was drunk and in a blackout. Shortly after the plane gained cruising altitude, he said the stewardess came down the aisle taking drink orders, and he told her "This is a hijacking. I want to go to Cuba." He said shortly afterward, one of the crew told him the pilots said they were not carrying enough fuel to make the trip to Cuba and would need to stop somewhere and refuel. He said "OK!" since he was a well mannered alcoholic. The plane landed in Atlanta and a crew member told him "These other passengers don't want to go to Cuba. Would you be willing to let them get off here?" Being a well mannered alcoholic, he said, "Sure, they can get off." When the steps were lowered and the passengers left the plane, a team of FBI agents boarded, arrested him, and took him to the local federal prison to be held for the police and court processes. He said that he came to full consciousness at about 6pm that evening, realized he was in jail, and that the place didn't seem like any ordinary jail he had ever seen before. He always swore that the first thing he could consciously remember about the events was that when he came out of his blackout there was a televison on the wall at the end of the cell block and the 6pm news was on. He said he saw himself being led off the plane between two FBI agents. His family had some money and got him a good defense attorney and a psychiatrist who hypnotized him to probe his memory of knowledge of the events. He and the psychiatrist both testified that he had no organic memory of the hijacking. He eventuall was able to either get a plea deal or was simply convicted and given a fairly light sentence.

These two men were not typical of all the prisoners at FMC and they stood out in a place where it was hard to stand out. The Lexington Herald Leader published a story on February 16, 2024, which contained a lenghty list of former famous musicians who had been incarcerated and treated at the facility when it was called The Narco Farm. That list included the names of Jazz musicians including Chet Baker, Howard McGhee, Benny Green, Red Rodney, Sonny Rollins, Tadd Dameron and Jackie McLean. It also mentioned William S. Burroughs, Sr., a member of the Beat Writers whose book "Junkie" mentioned what might have been a slightly sanitized version of his time there. His son, William S. Burroughs, Jr. also spent time at the facility and wrote his own book primarily about his incarceration and treatment. But for my money, which was simply $1.59 spent at a Goodwill store, the best book about FMC is "The Narcotic Farm" by Nancy D. Campbell, JP Olsen, and Luke Walden which was published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in 2008. It was a fantastic reasearch job and contains hundreds of historical photographs from the facility along with an excellent historical account of the life of the prison since 1935. In addition to the William S. Burroughs, Sr. book which was originally published in an Ace Double, it also mentions William S. Burroughs, Jr's book "Kentucky Ham" which contains a more lengthy story of his time at FMC. Two other books about life at FMC when it was known as The Narco Farm, are also discussed in "The Narcotic Farm". Those two books are "The Fantastic Lodge: The Autobiography Of A Girl Drug Addict" edited by Helen McGill Hughes and "The Farm" by Clarence L. Cooper, Jr. who was also incarcerated and treated in Lexington before being released and dying as a homeless addict.

Research done at FMC Lexington on consenting prisoners has been instrumental for many years in affecting how substance abuse treatment has been done and the production and approval of several drug therapies both moderately successful and unsuccessful. The long, productive, and incredibly interesting life of FMC Lexington deserves to be told and the facility deserves to be preserved. At a time when the current treaonous administration is destroying much of what is productive in America, and simultaneously creating and wasting billions of dollars on asinine failures such as Alligator Alcatraz, and two totally unjustified wars of aggression, FMC Lexington needs to be preserved and maintained as an active institution in the Bureau of Prisons. Why in the face of potentially several hundred good jobs being lost aren't the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the Kentucky state legislature fighting this proposed closure?

Tommy Webb Plays Bluegrass For Free On July 4th 2026, at Mountain Arts Center In Prestonsburg, KY, Free Barbecue by James Butler

On July 4th, 2026, Tommy Webb, one of the best voices in all of Bluegrass music will be playing a free concert at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in support of the congressional campaign of Ned Pillersdorf in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District. James Butler, one of the best barbecue cooks in Kentucky will also be providing free barbecue. I'm sure Ned Pillersdorf will say a few words at some point and try to keep it short in light of the quality of the entertainment and food. Come on out! Bring a friend! Enjoy the music and food! Leave the show with a firm commitment to vote for Ned Pillersdorf in November in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District! We'll see you there!

And be sure not to forget to eat some of James Butler's famous barbecue while you can get a full stomach for free!

"Welcome The Traveler Home" by Jim Garland, Edited by Julia S. Ardery

Jim Garland (1905-1978), the author of this book, was born in Bell County Kentucky and grew up, like several others of his family, to become an underground coal miner. He was also a well known labor leader, union organizer, and folk singer who also happened to be the brother of Aunt Molly Jackson and Sarah Ogan Gunning both of whom were also folk singers and active in support of trade unionism and worker's rights. He organized and was a member of both the United Mine Workers of America and the National Miners Union. His organizing work was primarily in Harlan and Bell counties in Kentucky where he had worked at various times in several mines. He wrote this book, or at least, wrote most of the manuscript well before his death in 1978 but never published the book himself. At some point, his wife Hazel seems to have passed the manuscript on to the Kentucky writer Julia S. Ardery (1889-1977) who edite the work but also failed to get it published in her lifetime. Ardery wrote one other major book, " The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and the Genesis of Twentieth-Century Folk Art", which is a masterful biography and work of art criticism which was also not published in her lifetme. I have written about the Tolson biography at this link.When we consider that "Welcome The Traveler Home" was not published in the lifetimes of either the author or editor, it is a miracle that the book was ever published at all. However, Ardery was from a prominent Bourbon County Kentucky political family and the mother of a US Army Major General; a second son who worked for a time in Washington, DC, as a journalist before joining the University of Kentucky which published this book; and a third son who was an accountant who died by suicide four years before his mother's death. It seems likely that one of her sons was instrumental in the effort to have this book by Jim Garland published as well as Julia Ardery's book about Edgar Tolson. Rarely in the world of book publishing do manuscripts survive long enough to published after the death of the author. Yes, I acknowledge that it does sometimes happen, but it is as rare as hen's teeth. Garland's style of writing was exemplary of his lack of education but still strong writing. Ardery said in her Introduction that she had done as little as possible to alter Garland's original work with only minor edits for clarity of meaning, some organizational work since his manuscripts appears to have been less than well organized. But the content of the book is what makes it more than well worth reading. While I do believe it has some significant historical inaccuracies in it, it is still a fine first person discussion of the effort to unionize the Kentucky coalfields in the 1920's and 1930's. It also provides some interesting glimpses into the lived of he two famous folk singing sisters of Garland. But, sadly, it is devoted almost entirely to the time he spent in Eastern Kentucky as a coal miner and union organizer with minimal discussion of his life as a folk singer afer he was forced to leave the coal fields because he believed he had been targeted for death by coal operators. Two absolutely minimal references are made to two other very important figures in the effort to unionize the coalfields, Don West and Sam Reece. in the case of Don West whom Garaland says replaced him in the organizing effort when he was forced to leave Eastern Kentucky, the reference is only one sentence long. In the case of Sam Reece who was the husband of Florence Reece who wrote the classic labor ballad "Which Side Are You On?", Garland uses about three sentences to say that at some point in the union effort, he had borrowed Sam Reece's car to make a trip out of town. Both Don West and Sam Reece were major figures in the effort to organize the coalfields. I knew Don West quite well from about 1974 until his death in 1992 but never heard him mention Jim Garland in any of the many discussions I heard him give of his life as an organizer, miner,labor activist, and educator. I was also able to spend two days in the company of Florence and Sam Reece at Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, which Don West and Myles Horton founded. I spent roughly a year living at the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia, which was founded by Don and Connie West. It would have been very educational if I had been able to hear and cross reference all those people's memories of the organizing efforts Harland and Bell counties including their discussions about each other. Such complete knowledge from all of them would have vastly improved my knowledge about Jim Garland and his work. The book is full of references to Appalachian social customs, mores, and history as Jim Garland chose to describe it all. It is a fairly well written book, extremely well edited by Julia S. Ardery, and well worth the time to read by any student of American Labor History, Appalachian Studies, or Kentucky History. It is very minimal in its discussion of folk songs despite the addition of the lyrics of several songs across the length of the text. My particular copy which I bought at a Goodwill Store for $1.59 plus tax is also inscribed by Suzy Roy and Betty Garland Roy, the daughter of Jim and Hazel Garland. A third signature is signed simply "Mrs. Jim Garland". It appears that all three signatures were made with the same red fine point marker. Due to the length of Betty's inscription which refers to Jim Garland as "Daddy" and to Sarah Ogan Gunning as "Aunt Sarah", I believe the signatures are authentic. I have added a scan of the inscription page below. I hope you can find and read your own copy of the book if you are a student of Appalachian Studies, Union Organizing and History, or Kentucky History. It is a fascinating read!

"Soupbean: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature" by Bob Snyder, P. J. Laska, et. al.

After thirty or more years of periodic searches on used book websites, I finally located a copy of "Soupbean: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature" by Bob Snyder, P. J. Laska, et. al, a group of Appalachian writers connected to The Soupbean Poets Collective of Antioch College/Appalachia. The book was published by Mountain Union Books of Beckley, WV, in 1977. Mountain Union Books was an imprint which was briefly operated by Antioch College Appalachia, which was a branch of Antioch College of Yellow Springs, Ohio. This branch campus was created by Antioch College in the early 1970's, initially opening in Huntington, WV, and after a couple of years relocated to Beckley. The branch was operated for roughly 8 years before being shuttered by the mother institution which had created a group of such campuses in California, Alaska, West Virginia, and one or two other locations. The campus in Beckley was never large with an annual enrollment which was generally less than 100 students. But Antioch Appalachia, which also operated briefly as The Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College, was staffed by several of the best writers in all of Appalachian Studies including Robert "Bob" Snyder, P. J. Laska, Don West, Bill Blizzard, Rod Harless, and Yvonne Snyder Farley. The campus also produced several well known authors of Appalachian Literature most of whom are still writing and publishing today. During the brief life of the campus, four of its female students were featured in an issue of "MS Magazine" as "Women Writers of Appalachia". Those four women were Gail Amburgey; Pauletta Hansel who eventually became the first Poet Laureate of Cincinatti, Ohio; Peggy Dotson Hall, now deceased; and Sylvia Evans. I ahve to admit that I have never met either Evans or Hall and know little about any subsequent work they did. But I have known both Gail Amburgey and Pauletta Hansel for years and read a great deal of both women's work. Other published student writers who attended or graduated from Antioch included the late Joseph Barrett who has two published books as the product of his brief life; Bob Henry Baber, the eventual mayor of Richwood, West Virginia, and the author or editor of several books. I am proud to say that I was briefly a student at Antioch Appalachia but didn't complete a degree there. I have published fiction and nonfiction in a dozen states and one foreign country. My first collection of short stories is pending publication at this time in late June 2026. I always have and always will say that being exposed to the faculty and students at Antioch Appalachia and the high level of education they provided was the greatest influence on my writing. Antioch Appalachia was a wellspring of and for writers and writing in Central and Southern Appalachia. In addition to the Appaachian writers who were produced by the campus, two other students achieved success in divergent fields. Sam Farley, a Vietnam veteran and eventual social worker who in 2007 was in 2007 recognized by The National Association of Social Workers, West Virginia Chapter, with the Catalyst Award for Direct Social Work Practice. Barbara Placier Ervin, another graduate of Antioch Appalachia became a professor at Lander University in South Carolina and served as Director of Montessori Education at that institution where she earned the Mary Frances Poole Alston Award, which is presented to a faculty or staff member who has provided "visibility for Lander University throughout the state of South Carolina, the United States and the world" which was a recognition of her internationally recognized work in her field. By percentage of the student body, this group of highly successful individuals stand out very favorably in comparison to nearly any other college in the nation. The book being reviewed here contains writing from several members of that group including Pauletta Hansel, Gail Amburgey, Mary Joan Coleman, Bob Henry Baber, and Joseph Barrett. It also includes work by Bob Snyder, P.J. Laska, and Yvonne Snyder Farley who all served as faculty of Antioch Appalachia. This little book contains the powerful and sometimes biting poetry of Gail Amburgey who was a survivor of the Buffalo Creek Flood and one of two Antioch Appalachia products who went on to be among the early female coal miners in Appalachia. Gail's writing is frequently colored by her exposure to that flood which was a glaring example of everything that can go wrong when an American industry is underregulated and its actions go awry. It also contains contributions from Joseph Barrett who published poetry in numerous journals around the world before his untimely death at only 39. There is also some fine writing by former student David Chaffins who became a career Navy noncom. Jim Wayne Miller, who was a professor of German at Western Kentucky University and a well recognized writer of literature in Appalachia, also contributed to this book which must be considered a complement to the little college that could. This is a generally difficult little book to find for sale since it was issued in a small edition in 1977. But if you can locate a copy, buy it, read it, come to enjoy one of the most productive institutions to ever exist in Appalachia and Appalachian Literature. You won't be disappointed.!

The Music Of Coal

 

Few professions have ever generated the amount of music about their industry which has been generated by coal and coal mining.  The music of coal has been around in the United States nearly as long as coal mining itself.  Several important musical artists have recorded complete albums of coal mining songs in tribute to the industry and the men and women who do the work of coal.  There have also been numerous anthology albums about coal and coal mining with widely varied artists being involved in those productions.  The music of coal has been recorded by singers from nearly every genre of American music.  But the majority of coal mine music has come within the related fields of country and Bluegrass music both of which can arguably say they are the music both  of the Appalachian Region and of the working class.  There are numerous songs from the greater body of coal mining music which are among the most popular songs in all of American music.  Nearly everyone who has ever lived, worked, or been descended from anyone who lived or worked in the coal industry has their own list of favorite coal mining songs.  So do I!  I will begin this blog post with my own top ten list of coal mining songs which does include a couple of those which nearly everyone in America knows and will also include a few of which many of you readers might have never heard.

I cannot clearly state which is my favorite coal mining song of all time but I will begin this list with the songs which mean the most to me as the son, grandson, nephew, and brother of coal miners.  I never worked in the coal industry but I grew up in Knott County Kentucky about three miles from Wayland, Kentucky, a classic company owned coal mining town in Floyd County Kentucky.  I also grew up only fifteen or so miles from Wheelwright, Kentucky, and only ten miles from McDowell, Kentucky, both of which were also classic company owned coal mining towns.  My father and several other family members worked in the Elkhorn Coal Mine at Wayland, Kentucky, and two of my uncles worked for years at Wheelwright and McDowell.  I grew up in a country store and coal miners were our neighbors, customers, and friends.  My oldest half-brother, Hewie Hicks, died in a coal mining accident.  I knew and was mentored by several people who worked as union organizers in the coal industry including Don West, Hosea Hudson, and Florence and Sam Reece.  I was also mentored by William Howard Cohen, one of the first high profile opponents of strip mining, and by Bill Blizzard, whose father led the UMWA miners at the Battle of Blair Mountain.  In addition to growing up in Eastern Kentucky coal country, I also spent a total of about seven years in Raleigh, Logan, and Mingo counties in West Virginia and also worked as a salesman in Boone, Lincoln, Wayne, Wyoming, and McDowell in the West Virginia coal fields.  I know coal, coal people, and the music of coal.  

My Favorite Coal Songs

1) Which Side Are You On? by Florence Reece.  Almost anyone who has ever been around a union coal mining area or known even one United Mine Workers member has heard this song.  It was written by Florence Reece on the back of a calendar page in a Harlan County coal camp during the seminal organizing effort of the Harlan County Coal mines in the 1920's.  I am very proud to say I heard the story of this song directly from the mouths of Florence Reece and her husband Sam. This is arguably the greatest union organizing song ever written and has been adapted by numerous other unions in addition to the UMWA. 

2) Red Wing Blackbird by Kathy Mattea whose two grandfathers were Italian immigrant coal miners in West Virginia. This song comes from Kathy Mattea's incredible album "Coal" which is one of the three best coal mining albums ever recorded.  The song was written by Billy Ed Wheeler who actually wrote at least two of the best coal mining songs ever recorded.  This song fits squarely into a subgenre of coal mining music which I call "Music of Death and Danger In The Mines".  It is a beautiful piece of writing and masterfully sung by Kathy Mattea.  

3) The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore by Kathy Mattea.  This song also comes from that wonderful album by Mattea but was written by Jean Ritchie, the famous American folk singer and writer who grew up in a coal camp in Perry County Kentucky, and was the first graduate of the social work program at the University of Kentucky although she never used her degree in social work to earn a living.  It falls into a sub-category of coal mining music which I call "The Demise Of The Coal Mines".  It has been recorded by numerous musical artists but, in my opinion, no one does it as well as Kathy Mattea who is the granddaughter of two Italian immigrant coal miners in West Virginia.  

4) Last Train From Poor Valley by Norman Blake. This song is probably one of the least known yet best songs in all of coal mining music.  It is also a classic number in that sub-category which I call "The Demise Of The Coal Mines".  Norman Blake did an incredible job of describing and immortalizing the death of a coal mining valley in this song.  And the song also fits into a general category of music about lost love.  "I saw the last train from Poor Valley takin’ brown haired Becky Richmond bound."

5 Dark As A Dungeon by Merle Travis.  This is just one of the great coal mining songs written by Merle Travis, the classic country music singer and native of Muhlenberg County Kentucky, the heart of the Western Kentucky coal fields.  Travis also recorded my other most favorite album of coal music called "Songs Of The Coal Mines".  This song fits squarely into the sub-category "Music of Death And Danger In The Mines". 

6) You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive by Patty Loveless.  Patty Loveless who sings this song on her incredible album "Mountain Soul" grew up in the coal mining country of Pike County Kentucky and is a key artist from that amazing group of people from the Big Sandy River Valley who have changed the face of American music and popular culture with their work.  The song has now been recorded by a large number of other singers and would be singers but nobody can equal the job Patty Loveless does on it.  It is clearly  one of the songs about "Death And Danger In The Mines". 

7) Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Earnie Ford. This is another of the wonderful coal songs written by Merle Travis and is found on his "Songs Of The Coal Mines" album.  But Tennesse Earnie Ford's version of it is the one most people remember and is also my favorite version.  This song falls into a sub-category of coal mining music which I call "The Hard Life Of The Coal Miner".  The line "you load sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt" personifies the life many coal miners led all across the Appalachian coal fields of the twentieth century.  

8) Black Waters by Kathy Mattea. This song was written by Jean Ritchie, the second of her compositions which I have placed on my list of favorites, and it well deserves to be better known than it is.  This song is not on Mattea's "Coal" album as she says in the narration before the song on this link since she was not aware of it when she was recording that album.  I love Jean Ritchie's writing but I love Kathy Mattea's style a bit better.  If you are into folk music, you might want to listen to Ritchie's version of the song.  These lines from the song place it squarely in the category of "Environmental Protest Music In The Coal Industry" which, in my opinion is the second most important category of coal mining music just behind union organizing music: "Now there's scenes of destruction on every hand And there's only black waters run down through my land Sad scenes of destruction on every hand black waters, black waters, run down through the land."

9) Joe Hill by Joan Baez. Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson wrote this classic union organizing song which actually originated in the Colorado copper mining country.  But it quickly became a favorite of union miners in all types of mining all across the country.  Other than "Which Side Are You On?", this is probably the best union organizing song ever written.  In its own way, it memorializes every man and woman who ever died in an organizing effort whether that effort was in the coal, copper, iron ore, garment, or farming industries.  No one can equal Joan Baez's vocal work on this song.  These lines from "Joe Hill" are one of the strongest statements ever made about the importance of determination and unceasing effort in the union organizing effort: "From San Diego up to Maine, In every mine and mill, Where working-men defend their rights, It's there you'll find Joe Hill."

10) Coal Tattoo by Billy Edd Wheeler.  This is the second Billy Edd Wheeler written song I have put on my favorite list although numerous others have recorded excellent versions of it including Kathy Mattea on that incredible album "Coal".  But I really like Wheeler's version and so will you if you like coal mining songs.  This song fits squarely in that sub-category of coal mining songs called "Music Of Death And Danger In The Mines" and utilizes a very unique approach to the subject matter with a living miner, instead of a dead miner, as the narrator. "Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo You have on the side of your head" I said "That's the blueprint left by the coal A little more and I'd be dead".   

Categories Of Coal Mining Music

There are several sub-categories of coal mining music and I will discuss each of them separately and give a few more musical examples of each. Those sub-categories of coal mining music include 1) Union Organizing Songs; 2) Environmental Protest Songs Of Coal; 3) Death And Danger In The Mines; 4) The Hard Life Of The Coal Miner; 5) The Demise Of The Coal Industry; 6) Songs Which Glorify Coal Mining; and, 7) Songs Supporting Strip Mining.  

Union Organizing Songs

Obviously, the most important, but not always the most popular, of these sub-categories of coal mining music is "Union Organizing Music".  Without coal miners and the United Mine Workers Of America, life for the entire American working class would be very different.  The coal miners and the UMWA played a very important part in gaining many of the most important rights of workers in America.  And without unions, it would not be many years before these basic rights would be gone as has been demonstrated in the worst possible manner by the widespread proliferation of Right To Work laws in many states. In addition to the UMA, in the early days of the coal mine organizing efforts, the National Miners Union and the International Workers of the World, aka the Wobblies, were also important to the orgganizing effort.  Among those rights which coal miners and the UMWA have helped win for American workers are the forty hour work week, company paid health insurance, minimum wage, paid vacations and holidays, sick pay, the entire body of work place safety laws and regulations, collective bargaining, the right to strike, and numerous others including major environmental laws and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.  These rights were gained by the joint activities of many unions both within and outside the coal mining industry and numerous unions played a part in the effort including the Industrial Workers of The World (Wobblies), the National Miners Union, the United Auto Workers, the Teamsters, and the entire AFL-CIO.  

I have already listed a couple of the best union organizing songs in all of American labor and coal mining history: "Which Side Are You On?" by Florence Reece and "Joe Hill" by Joan Baez.  But there are several other very important union organizing songs which arose from the effort to organize the American coal mines, especially the Appalachian coal fields.  Among my favorites of these songs is "The Harlan County Boys" by Merle Travis which is another of the songs on his wonderful album "Coal" and which immortalizes those early union organizing efforts in Harlan County Kentucky in the early twentieth century.  We can always use one more good Harlan County song and one more good coal mining singer.  So I am adding to this list "Harlan County Blues" by George Davis, The Singing Miner, who was not only an Eastern Kentucky coal miner but also a performer, recording artist, and disc jockey at WSGS, 101.1FM, the best radio station in all of the Appalachian coal fields.  Another of the songs of George Davis belongs on this list, "When Kentucky  Had No Union Men", which is a fine example of union organizing music.  Billy Bragg's song, "There Is Power In A Union", also deserves to be on nearly any list of union organizing music.  Woody Guthrie's "Union Burying Ground" also is a fine example of union organizing music and far less well known than it deserves to be.  From the mines of Nova Scotia, we must also include Greg MacPherson's "Company Store" which commemorates the occasion on which union miners burned a company store to the ground in protest.  The lyrics are powerful, unflinching, and brave: "I haven't worked in 40 days  For 23 I've had no pay  In a week I'll have no place to stay  In an hour they'll have to kill me.  Half the town'll die from the mining of the coal  The other half'll leave when the mine decides to close  The people who are left will starve to death at the hands of the company store."  While this listing of coal mine union organizing songs is incomplete, it is a start for any of you readers who are interested in learning about trade unionism in the coal fields and how coal miner's unions have often led the union organizing movement in America.  

Environmental Protest Songs Of Coal

"Black Waters" performed by Kathy Mattea and written by Jean Ritchie is the only environmental protest song of the coal business I included on my personal top ten.  But there are numerous others I love including "Paradise" by John Prine.  "Paradise" is one of the few coal mining environmental protest songs to become widely popular and few people even stop to realize that it is such a song.  But the lyric lines from the chorus leave no doubt about it: "And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County  Down by the green river where Paradise lay?  Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking  Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."  If the town has been hauled away and it is too late to go back to Muhlenberg County, the song can only fall into one sub-category, coal mining environmental protest songs.  Mike Morningstar's "The Buffalo Creek Disaster" is a fine example of a coal mining environmental protest song about one of the worst manmade disasters in the nation. These lines from the song cover two different aspects of that disaster which killed more than 130 people.  They confront both strip mining and the disastrous flood which was caused by a combination of factors, all rooted in corporate greed including mismanagement, denial of the damage caused by coal mining, and the avoidance of regulatory intervention.   They strip off all the topsoil and uproot all those trees, They killed those folks in Buffalo Creek, and then shrug the blame with ease.  Don't give a damn for life or land, just roll on like they please." If you are interested in written documentation of the Buffalo Creek Disaster and other negative outcomes of the coal industry, I would suggest that you read this book edited by Wess Harris, "Written In Blood". 

THIS IS A BLOG POST IN PROGRESS! IF YOU LIKE THIS INCOMPLETE VERSION, PLEASE COME BACK IN A FEW DAYS AND I WILL TRY TO HAVE IT COMPLETED. IT IS A LARGE SUBJECT AND JUST KEEPS GETTING LARGER EVERY DAY WITH NEW SONGS APPEARING FROM THE COALFIELDS ALL THE TIME!