Hazel Dickens
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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".
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[edit] Career
Dickens was born in Mercer County, West Virginia, the eighth of eleven siblings born to a mining family.[1]
She met Mike Seeger,[when?] younger half-brother of Pete Seeger and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers and became active in the Baltimore-Washington area bluegrass and folk music scene during the 1960s.
During this time she also established a collaborative relationship with Mike Seeger's wife, Alice Gerrard, and as "Hazel & Alice" recorded two albums for the Folkways label: Who's That Knocking (And Other Bluegrass Country Music) (1965) and Won't You Come & Sing for Me (1973). Dickens and Gerrard were bluegrass bandleaders at a time when the vast majority of bluegrass bands were led by men.
According to Bill Warren, her "music, and especially her songwriting, assumed an even more political cast almost as soon as she began pursuing a solo career."[2] She appeared in the documentary Harlan County, USA and also contributed four songs to the soundtrack of the same film. She also appeared in the films Matewan and Songcatcher.
[edit] Death
Hazel Dickens died in 2011, aged 75. Extolling that "music saves mountains", fans and supporters of Dicken's activism announced a special memorial, Tribute to West Virginia Music Legend Hazel Dickens at the Charleston, West Virginia Cultural Center on June 5, 2011, four days after what would have been her 76th birthday.
[edit] Discography
[edit] With Alice Gerrard
- Who's That Knocking (1965)
- Strange Creek Singers (Arhoolie, 1970) – Also with Mike Seeger and Tracy Schwarz
- Won't You Come & Sing for Me (1973)
- Hazel & Alice (Rounder Records, 1973)
- Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (Rounder Records, 1975)
- Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard – Pioneering Women of Bluegrass (Smithsonian Folkways, 1996) – Re-mastered and re-sequenced compilation of first two albums
[edit] Solo albums
- Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People (Rounder Records, 1981)
- By the Sweat of My Brow (Rounder Records, 1984)
- It's Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song (Rounder Records, 1986)
- A Few Old Memories (Rounder Records, 1987) – Compilation "best of" first three albums
[edit] With Carol Elizabeth Jones, Ginny Hawker
- Heart of a Singer (Rounder Records, 1993/1998)
[edit] Compilations
- Rounder Old-Time Music (1987)
- Mountain Music Played on the Autoharp (Folkways Records, 1962)
- American Banjo: Three-Finger and Scruggs Style (Smithsonian Folkways, 1990)
- Don't Mourn—Organize!: Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill (Smithsonian Folkways, 1990)
- Blue Ribbon Bluegrass (1993)
- The Old Home Place: Bluegrass and Old-Time Mountain Music (1993)
- Live Recordings 1956–1969: Off the Record Volume 1 (Smithsonian Folkways, 1993)
- Old-Time Music on the Air, V. 1 (1994)
- Hills of Home: 25 Years of Folk Music on Rounder Records (1995)
- Hand-Picked: 25 Years of Bluegrass on Rounder Records (1995)
- Songs of the Louvin Brothers (1997)
- They'll Never Keep Us Down: Women's Coal Mining Songs – Re-issued under the title: Coal Mining Women (1997)
- Blue Trail of Sorrow (2001)
- There Is No Eye: Music for Photographs (Smithsonian Folkways, 2001)
- Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways, 2002)
- Bluegrass Mountain Style: Over 60 Minutes of Classic Bluegrass from Rounder Records (2002)
- Mama's Hand: Bluegrass and Mountain Songs about Mother (2002)
- Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways, 2002)
- Mountain Journey: Stars of Old Time Music (2005)
- Classic Bluegrass Vol. 2 from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways, 2005)
- Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner's Struggle (2006)
- Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways, 2006)
- Masters of Old-time Country Autoharp (Smithsonian Folkways, 2006)
[edit] Films
[edit] Films in which Dickens appears
- Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song (2001). Directed by Mimi Pickering (Appalshop).
- Matewan (1987). Directed by John Sayles.
- Songcatcher (2000). Directed by Maggie Greenwald.
[edit] Films in which Dickens contributes to the soundtrack
- Harlan County U.S.A. (1976). Directed by Barbara Kopple.
- Coalmining Women (1982). Directed by Elizabeth Barret. Whitesburg, Kentucky: Appalshop.
- Matewan (1987). Directed by John Sayles.
- Songcatcher (2000). Directed by Maggie Greenwald.
- Black Lung (2006). Directed by Shane Roberts.
[edit] References
- ^ Malone, Brian C.; Hazel Dickens (2008). "Hazel Dickens: a brief biography". Working girl blues: the life and music of Hazel Dickens. University of Illinois Press. p. 2. ISBN 0252075498. http://books.google.com/books?id=LBUH3ZXJuK0C&pg=PA2&dq=%22hazel+dickens%22+eleven&hl=en&ei=jwv2TLycHYPPhAforfHEBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22hazel%20dickens%22%20eleven&f=false.
- ^ Times, ibid.
