Suggestions for songs about coal mining?
sionnach
I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
What I already have:
Dark as a Dungeon
Coal Miner's Prayer
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coorie Doon
The Collier Laddie
Miner's Life
16 Tons
Any other suggestions?
sionnach
"sionnach wrote:
my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history...
Whoops! There should be a "0" after that "2".
David Rintoul
Scotsman) wrote it:
School day's over,
Come on then, John.
It's time you were getting your pit boots on.
It's time you were handling a pick and shovel.
You start at the pit today.
It's time you were learning a pitman's job.
And earning a pitman's pay.
sionnach wrote:
--
David Rintoul
david....@sympatico.ca
http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.rintoul
"In prosperity, our friends know us. In adversity, we know our friends."
J. Churton Collins
aussiebloke
news:3ABD4412...@sympatico.ca...
> Help me out, folks, I'm sure someone will know this one and who ( I
believe a
> Scotsman)
Here you go...
Found it via a quick and easy search at Mudcat/Digital Tradition
www.mudcat.org
SCHOOLDAYS END
(Ewan MacColl)
A7 D
Schooldays over, come on then John,
G D
Time you was puttin you pit boots on
D G A Bm F#m Bm
On with your sark and moleskin trousers, time you was on your way
D G A
Time you was learnin the pitman's job, and earning a pitman's pay
Come on then Jim, it's time to go, time you was working down below
Time to be handling a pick and shovel, you start at the pit today
Time you was learning the collier's job, and earning a collier's pay
Come on then Dai, it's almost light, time you was off to the anthracite
The morning mist in on the valley, it's time you was on your way
Time you was learning the miner's job, and earning a miner's pay
Repeat verse one
Recorded by Ewan MacColl
Copyright Storm King Music
@work @child @mining
filename[ SCHOLDAY
Tune file : SCHOLDAY
Enjoy
aussiebloke<NOSPAM>@hotmail.com
shameless-player-of-the-bodhrán in public...
"David Rintoul" <david....@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:3ABD4412...@sympatico.ca...
G. M. Watson
you do anything else. First published in 1952 and reprinted innmumerable
times since, it contains words and music to hundreds of coal-mining songs
and remains the definitive work on the subject.
----------
In article <99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de>, "sionnach"
G. M. Watson
book was published in 1978-- this is the one to get.
----------
In article <3abd...@newsserver1.intergate.ca>, "G. M. Watson "
Jan
'Close it down' by Wolfstone. It's also about steel works, so not coal
mining alone.
sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
Stefan Ehlen
Dirty blackleg miner
It's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he grabs his duds and down he goes
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner.
Oh, Delaval is a terrible place.
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a foot race,
To catch the backleg miner!
So, dinna gang near the Seghill mine.
Across the way they stretch a line,
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty backleg miner.
They grab his duds and his pick as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell.
Down you go, and fare you well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
Oh, it's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may.
Don't wait till your dying day,
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner!
CU
Stefan
Zeke Fiddle
Gillian Welch - Miner's Refrain
Mountain Soul - Bethlehem Coal
Stefan Ehlen <de...@unseen.saw.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
news:87g0g27...@unseen.saw.rwth-aachen.de...
Sam Hinton
****************************
Down, Down, Down & Union Man (Library of Congress recordings)
Black Waters a& The L & N Don't Stop Here Any More (both by Jean Ritchie)
Sparkles and Shines ( recorded by Guy Carawan)
BOOKS by George Korson: Coal Dust on the Fiddle (1943): Minstrels of the Mine
Patch (1938): Songs and Ballads of Anthracite Miners (1927).
And see "History In Song: Songs From the Mines" at
<http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mines.html>.
Sam
La Jolla, Ca USA
David Rintoul
TJSTRAT
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for.
"Miner's Strawberries", an old union song ("they're nothin' but beans.").
TJS
"A hook adds a definite edge to a dull look." - John Waters
CSJ
"Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
> "sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining &
> > miners,
I'm not reading all these so forgive the duplication:
An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
Coal...)
My favorite from Hazel and Alice, 30 Inch Coal.
Howard L. Kaplan
I suspect that Byker Hill is in one or another of the anthologies that
have been mentioned. The lyrics are posted at
http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/scottish/bykerhil.htm, and the chorus
is
"Byker Hill and Walker Shore
Collier lads for evermore."
The other one I only vaguely remember. It was written in the early
1980s by someone who was very young at the time (9? 11?), and it may
have been called "The Spider Song". I think that it was about the
closing down of a coal mine, with one of the lines being "Go tell the
spider not to build her nest". A search for the usual suspects on
Google and Northern Light did not turn up any promising leads, but
perhaps someone here remembers the song and even knows whatever happened
to its very precocious writer.
--
Howard L. Kaplan
Songwriter and occasional performer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.thrinberry-frog.com
Abby Sale
wrote:
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
G.M. - Yes, Lloyd is excellent. I'd add George Korson's, _Coal Dust on the
Fiddle_. Again, it gives the setting & sometimes terrifying stories behind
the songs. And whatever the Tommy Armstrong "Songs of" book is called.
Can't leave out Newcastle.
More modern like "Blue Diamond Mines," etc., by 'Than Hall (Jean Ritchie in
drag)
And while you're at Digital Tradition, do a search on <coal mine> (no
brackets, or connectors or anything) will show 35 songs with the two words
anywhere in them.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
I am Abby Sale - in Orlando, Florida
Boycott South Carolina!
http://www.naacp.org/communications/press_releases/SCEconomic2.asp
MAIB
his songs have come up. Try to get hold of the Travis album, "Songs of the
Coal Mines." That ought to provide a few.
Mark
Rbcsoup
The Journeymen, 1963
CSJ
Green.
It is, in effect, a history of mining songs.
"Abby Sale" <NO-SPA...@ft.newyorklife.com> wrote in message
news:fbrrbtcca8bcb9mlc...@4ax.com...
Roy A. Fletcher
with editing...
: I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
: and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
: sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
: discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
: work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
Workin' Man by Rita MacNeil
Lunenburg County by the Osborne Bros.
A half-dozen albums by Men of the Deeps.
Regards. RAF
Joe Fineman
The Blantyre Explosion
Fourpence a Day
The Collier Laddie
The Coal Owner & the Pitman's Wife
The Durham Strike
Some years ago I heard, once, a song in praise of workers generally.
It had one stanza about the miners, with the beautiful line
Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: Love: two vowels, two consonants, two fools. :||
sionnach
"Joe Fineman" wrote:
> Some years ago I heard, once, a song in praise of workers generally.
> It had one stanza about the miners, with the beautiful line
>
> Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.
>
Ooh. I *like* that. Here's hoping somebody can identify the song it's
from!
Birdman566
again what is?
Gerry Myerson
<jnst...@csj.net> wrote:
> "Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
> An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
> diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
> Coal...)
That's the title track of a (vinyl) album of coal songs released on
Larrikin circa 1973 - a fine album, if you can find it anywhere.
Ewan MacColl's Schooldays Over has been mentioned in this thread.
There's a good-but-hard-to-find Australian recording of this, too,
but at least it's only a few years old & it's on CD; the group
is Creel, and the CD is Appellation.
I see Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Tattoo has been mentioned - there's
also his Redwinged Blackbird. Recorded by Judy Collins, more recently
by Herdman, Hills and Mangsen on their Voices CD, where it is coupled
with another coal song whose name escapes me at the moment.
I did a show of coal songs on radio once; here's my playlist.
The Radio Broadside Playlist for Sunday 1 Feb 98 at 9.00am on 107.3,
2 SER-FM, presented by Gerry Myerson and featuring COAL
Artist Walters & Warner
Song Title Gippsland Mining Man (Margaret Walters & John Warner)
Album Title Pithead in the Fern
Label & Code FWCD 042
Distributed by Feathers and Wedge, P.O.Box 615, Glebe, NSW 2037
Artist Merle Travis
Song Title Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis)
Album Title The Merle Travis Story
Label & Code CMH 9018 (vinyl)
Distributed by CMH Records
Artist Lee Conway
Song Title Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis)
Album Title Australian Country Classics, Vol. 2
Label & Code
Distributed by
Artist Ian Campbell Folk Group
Song Title Down in the Coal Mine (Trad.)
Album Title This is the Ian Campbell Folk Group
Label & Code ESM CD 357
Distributed by FoFMbM
Artist The Roaring Forties
Song Title Hillcrest Mine (James Keelaghan)
Album Title Shore Leave
Label & Code RF040 CD
Distributed by 22 Alicia Road, Mt Kuring-gai, NSW 2080
Artist The Critics Group (Frankie Armstrong, Sandra Kerr,
Peggy Seeger)
Song Title Miner's Wife (Ewan MacColl)
Album Title The Female Frolic
Label & Code Argo ZDA 82 (vinyl)
Distributed by
Artist The Fagans
Song Title Close the Coalhouse Door (Alex Glasgow)
Album Title Kitchen Dance
Label & Code FMCD 004
Distributed by Mossbawn Music, P.O.Box 154, Epping, NSW 2121
Artist Stephanie Osfield
Song Title Coal Tattoo (Stephanie Osfield and Kim Poole)
Album Title Union is Strength (various performers)
Label & Code 612-790 1
Distributed by ????
Artist Judy Collins
Song Title Coal Tattoo (Billy Edd Wheeler)
Album Title Judy Collins in Concert
Label & Code EKS 7280 (vinyl)
Distributed by Elektra Records
Artist The Larrikins
Song Title Man of the Earth (Jock Graham, Phyl Lobl)
Album Title Men of the Earth
Label & Code LRF 001 (vinyl)
Distributed by Larrikin
Artist Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick
Song Title In the Days of `49 (Alistair Hulett)
Album Title Saturday Johnnie and Jimmie the Rat
Label & Code RATCD 003
Distributed by FoFMbM
Artist Jez Lowe
Song Title These Coal Town Days (Jez Lowe)
Album Title Bede Weeps
Label & Code FEO94/C (cassette)
Distributed by Fellside
Gerry Myerson (ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au)
CSJ
"Gerry Myerson" <ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote in message
news:gerry-63FEE0.13054026032001@[137.111.1.11]...
> In article <tbs9nh9...@corp.supernews.com>, "CSJ"
> <jnst...@csj.net> wrote:
>
> > "Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
>
> > An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
> > diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
> > Coal...)
>
> That's the title track of a (vinyl) album of coal songs released on
> Larrikin circa 1973 - a fine album, if you can find it anywhere.
If it's that hard to find I can send a send or post an mp3 of my copy. I
have no idea if Warren Fayhe is still in business.
Kevin Krell
performed by Dick Gaughan (
http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/discog/dsc_gaug.htm ) and the
Paperboys (lyrics at http://www.paperboys.com/lyrics.html )
Kevin Krell
kevinj.fitzgerald
end with "the ballad of Patience Kershaw"
Kevin
"sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
Gerry Myerson
<ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote:
<snip!>
Kenneth Brock, who is temporarily unable to post news, has asked me
to post this for him.
You mention the Ian Campbell Folk Group, one of my favorites. They
recorded an entire lp of coal mining songs, "Coaldust Ballads". There
is Down in the Coal Mine, which you mention. Also "Testimony of
Patience (something - Kershaw?) on Something To Sing About.
I remember that one of the songs was something like "Rap
Her t' Bank" , which was the signal for the last group of men to be
lifted out of the mine at the end of the day. This song and maybe 1 or
2 more also appeared on The Ian Campbell Folk Group Sampler (vol 1, I
think). I have a copy of Coaldust Ballads around somewhere and will
look for it.
Another mining song I thought of is "Big Mole", from the musical "Lost
in the Stars" by Kurt Weill and I think Mazwell Anderson. It is based
on Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country". There is also a version (titled
"Big Black Mole") on a Disney Broadway lp from around 1960 called
"Lettle Gems From Big Shows". Here it is sung by Henry Calvin, who was
Sgt. Garcia in Disney's Zorro at the time and who originated the role
of the wazir in "Kismet".
Of related interest is the Earl Robinson (Joe Hill, Hurry Sundown, The
House I Live In) musical "Sandhog", from 1954. It's about the digging
of either the Holland Tunnel or the first tunnel in Boston harbor, I'm
not sure which.
I'm not sure whether anyone mentione Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill, or
wheher a tarrier has to do with coal or not.
BTW there are at least 2 recordings of Testimony of Patience (?) other
than the ICFG. Sally Rogers had one of them.
Jodee James
How about Can Y Cardi- "Cardiganshire Lad's Song"?? Ar Log recorded it as has Siwsann George. The Welsh words are full of Glamorgan dialect & terminology but i can gladly give you the words/music in English as well if you'd like. The guy in this song seems to be feeling pretty good about things- seems he's making more money than his dad- who i think was a farmer.
All the best with your search-
Jodee James
jodee...@att.net
http://www.mp3.com/jodeejames
_______________________________________________
Submitted via WebNewsReader of http://www.interbulletin.com
Paul Burke
> news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
> >
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> > and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> > sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> > discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> > work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
Close the Coalhouse Door (Alex Glasgow)
Banks o' the Dee (I am an old collier of fifty and six...)
Gresford Disaster:
You've heard of the Gresford Disaster
The one with the waggly tail
Two hundred and forty two colliers were lost
And I do hope that doggie's for sale
or something .
One my Grandad used to sing (he was electrician in pits near Pendlebury,
now part of Manchester):
I'm a collier by my trade
I can use a pick and spade
I can push a little wagon up a brow.
When I get to the top
I can sup a bottle of pop,
And that's what a navvy couldn't do!
Paul Burke
Mick Tems
We've got a shedfull of them here in Wales, and they will be loaded on to
the archive at www.folkwales.org.uk as soon as I have a spare month!
A few classics:
When The Coal Comes From The Rhondda
Farewell To The Rhondda
The Miner's Life (the original version... it was written for the Welsh
Sliding Scale dispute in 1898, hence the line: "Keep your hands upon your
wages and your eyes upon the scale...")
The Pontypridd Collier In Search Of His Wife
The Collier's Wedding
and many more.
Mick
--
Mick Tems & Pat Smith: Calennig/Celfyddydau Mari Arts/
Clwb Gwerin Llantrisant FC Phone/fax: 01443 226892 Mobile 07773 075962
e-mail mick...@folkwales.org.uk website: www.folkwales.org.uk
1 Ty Clwyta Cottages, Cross Inn, Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf CF72 8AZ
Chris Atkinson
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for.
by the Houghton Weavers.
The Ludlow Massacre by Woody Guthrie
Pit Boots
Chris A.
--
Chris Atkinson
ch...@cgautc.demon.co.uk UTC Computer Services
Honesty may be the best policy - but insanity's the better defence.
Rik Shepherd
Dickens, Phyllis Bowens, Sarah Gunning, Florence Reece and the Reel World
Stringband with the following tracks -
Coal Mining Woman / Blue Diamond Mines / Dreadful Memoroies / The Yablonski
Murder / Lawrence Jones / Draglines / Coal Miner's Grave / Come All You Coal
Miners / Black Lung / Dream of a Miner's Child / Mannington Mine Disaster /
That 25 Cents That You Paid / Clay County Miner / Clara Sullivan's Letter /
What She Aims to Be / Coal Tatto / Hello Coal Miner / The Battle of Jericol
/ Which Side Are You On ? / They'll Never Keep Us Down
and Topic TSCD 486, The Bonnie Bit Laddie has the High Level Ranters, Harry
Boardman and Dick Gaughan with
The Hewer / Doon The Wagon Way / A Miner's Life / I Wish Pay Friday Would
Come / The Auchengeich Disaster / The Collier's Rant / Farewell to the Monty
/ The Putter / Little Chance / My Gaffer's Bait / The Coal Owner and the
Pitman's Wife / The Blacking Miners / The Miner's Lockout / The South
Medomsley Strike / The Durham Lockout / Aa'm Glad the Strike's Done / The
Collier's Pay Week* / My Lad Is O'er Bonny For the Coal Trade / I'll Have A
Collier / The Stoneman's Song /The Hartley Calamity / Bonnie Woodha' / The
Banks of the Dee / The Bonny Pit Laddie
* This is a long poem with background music...
sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
Don Wallace
"sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
> What I already have:
>
> Dark as a Dungeon
> Coal Miner's Prayer
> Coal Miner's Daughter
> Coorie Doon
> The Collier Laddie
> Miner's Life
> 16 Tons
>
> Any other suggestions?
>
I seem to recall two records of coalmining songs put out by the Library
of Congress a long time ago (and probably still available) One
was songs of anthracite miners and the other was bituminous miners.
Was I on crack or is my memory correct?
Don
>
MAIB
"Don Wallace" <don.w...@nlc-bnc.nospam.ca> wrote in message
news:3ac36...@webserv.nlc-bnc.ca...
Abby Sale
<don.w...@nlc-bnc.nospam.ca> wrote:
>
>I seem to recall two records of coalmining songs put out by the Library
>of Congress a long time ago (and probably still available) One
>was songs of anthracite miners and the other was bituminous miners.
>Was I on crack or is my memory correct?
>
Whether or not you are cracked I wouldn't presume to opine. On the other
hand:
AFS L 16 - SONGS AND BALLADS OF THE ANTHRACITE MINERS
AFS L 60 - SONGS AND BALLADS OF THE BITUMINOUS MINERS
are still available. See http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html
sionnach
"Mick Tems" wrote:
> S'mae Sionnach,
>
> We've got a shedfull of them here in Wales, and they will be loaded on to
> the archive at www.folkwales.org.uk as soon as I have a spare month!
Thanks for the link & titles!
>
> Farewell To The Rhondda
Ah. Now *that* I know I've heard... probly on one of my Mam's old LPs. I'm
finding that I have heard about half the songs people mention, just couldn't
pull them out of memory banks when I wanted them. <G>
> The Miner's Life (the original version... it was written for the Welsh
> Sliding Scale dispute in 1898, hence the line: "Keep your hands upon your
> wages and your eyes upon the scale...")
I think I may have an MP3 of that. Unfortunately it's hard to make out the
lyrics...
J. Katherine Rossner
Days" (it's on the CD "Bede Weeps"). Some others from Jez Lowe: "Black
Diamonds" (on "The Old Durham Road") and, for the miner's wife's
perspective, "Last of the Widows" ("Bede Weeps") and "Weave and Worry"
("Live at the Davy Lamp"). And most of his CDs have related songs:
"Galloways" about the pit ponies, "Sweep Horizons Clean" about what coal
mining does to the land, etc.
"Black Burning Air" (listed as by Hal Michael Ketchum; the version I know is
sung by Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Cindy Mangsen on the disc
"Voices") is another good one about mining. And on "Voices" it's paired
with "Red-Winged Blackbird, by Billy Edd Wheeler--another "miner's wife"
song.
jkr
Valerie L. Magee
Boss Man, originally on the 1968 LP Did She Mention My Name; available on
various CDs of his early (UA) music and also on the 4 CD boxed set Songbook.
Mother Of A Miner's Child, from the 1972 LP Old Dan's Records. Unfortunately,
this song is not on CD.
Back in 1962, before he had penned any of the songs that we know him for, and
while he was performing as part of a Toronto based duo called The Two Tones,
Gord recorded a live version of Merle Travis' Dark As A Dungeon. That
recording is stunning, and for many years Gord was associated with that song.
Lightfoot often credits Travis as an influence - certainly on fingerpicking -
and when he later wrote songs with a mining or miners theme, we can see that
it wasn't just the guitar playing that stuck in his mind.
The lyrics for both songs are attached. Forgive any mistakes but I haven't had
time to double check them against a songbook. I also have a clip of Boss Man
here: http://mageenet.net/BossMan.ram .
sionnach wrote:
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
> What I already have:
>
> Dark as a Dungeon
> Coal Miner's Prayer
> Coal Miner's Daughter
> Coorie Doon
> The Collier Laddie
> Miner's Life
> 16 Tons
>
> Any other suggestions?
--
Regards,
Valerie
Visit some of my web sites - (Unofficial) Gordon Lightfoot at
http://gordonlightfoot.com
... Michael Jerling site at http://michaeljerling.com
... Artist's colony Yaddo at http://yaddo.org
LouKrieger
Springhill Mine Disaster (Ewan MacColl)
Days of 49
Avondale Mine Disaster
Coal Tattoo (Billy Edd Wheeler)
Bells of Rhymney
to suggest just a few that come to mind....
JesiAna
though it may have been Rosalie Sorrells, I heard it sung by a woman who had
that kind of sound) about the morphine that the miners carried in the mines,
should there be a cave-in. I heard it on Utah Phillips' radio program. It was
chilling...maybe someone knows the song?
Jesiana
"If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing."
Stephen Suffet
>
> There is a terrific song (can't remember the name of the song or the
> singer, though it may have been Rosalie Sorrells, I heard it sung by
> a woman who had that kind of sound) about the morphine that the
> miners carried in the mines, should there be a cave-in. I heard it
> on Utah Phillips' radio program. It was chilling...maybe someone
> knows the song?
Greetings:
The song is called "Miner's Lullaby" and it was written by Utah
Phillips. That most likely was Rosalie Sorrells whom you heard.
The last stanza goes:
But now here's a word, an explosion was heard,
The miners are trapped far below,
If any survive down there alive,
I'm certain we never will know.
Although our familes have vainly appealed,
No rescue attempt can be seen,
Our hope for our loved ones in the dark Earth sealed,
Now lies in a tin of morphine.
Miners certainly did carry rudimentary medical supplies, including
morphine pills. But the primary intended use was as a painkiller to be
used until a broken bone or some other injury could be treated. That
same morphine could, of course, be used to go to sleep and die peace-
fully when there was no hope of rescue. Whether it was actually used
in that manner is pure speculation. And any claim that such use was
the _main_ reason for carry morphine is simply legend. But Phillips,
as both a storyteller and a folksinger, is in the legends business.
And the one he tells in this song is quite a chilling tale.
You can find the music and lyrics in Phillip's "Starlight On the Rail
and Other Songs," published by Wooden Shoe in Sonoma, CA, in 1973.
Lots of luck tracking that one down!
--- Steve
John Albert
<< The song is called "Miner's Lullaby" and it was written by Utah
Phillips. That most likely was Rosalie Sorrells whom you heard. >>
This song also is included on a CD by Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin
called "Heart Songs - The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips"
(Rounder CD 0424).
I'd recommend this recording to anyone who hasn't yet heard them or
added one of their CD's to his/her collection. It is beautifully
performed, and the recording quality is excellent, particularly the
capture of the guitars.
I was driving home from work one night, listening to the radio, when I
first heard "Rock Salt and Nails" and "The Green Rolling Hills of West
Virginia". The DJ was playing several songs in a row, with these two in
the middle. I was so taken by them, I sat in the car a while after
arriving home, waiting to find out who the musicians were, so I could
hunt down the recording....
- John
Abby Sale
wrote:
>You can find the music and lyrics in Phillip's "Starlight On the Rail
>and Other Songs," published by Wooden Shoe in Sonoma, CA, in 1973.
>Lots of luck tracking that one down!
15 US libraries (including BOISE STATE UNIV) own it. Try Inter-Library
Loan.
Ken Hill
heard is "Coal in the Stone," by Kay Cothran, about a mining disaster in
Tennessee in the 1960's. DIGITAL TRADITION has the lyrics and a midi:
http://shorty.mudcat.org/!!-song99.cfm?stuff=fall99+D+2640096
Surprisingly, I've never seen a recording listed of this song. Helen
Schneyer sang it a few years ago at the UMass, Dartmouth Eistedfodd, and
the audience just set in awed silence for a long moment after she
finished. I've never heard anyone do it since then, but the chorus
continues to haunt me:
"Lie there, my laddie, lie easy, lie easy
The thoughts you were thinking will never be known
Under three thousand feet of the Cumberland Plateau
Where it's blacker than thunder and the coal in the stone."
Kevin Smith
You've surely heard Dark as a Dungeon, but have you ever heard the version
by John Cowan (Newgrass Revival). It's stunning. And I don't use that word
often. Check it out.
---
Keb'm
Mick Tems
loukr...@aol.com (LouKrieger) wrote:
>
> Bells of Rhymney
>
The Bells of Rhymney was just one section of a long, 50-part poem written by
Idris Davies (d. 1952) and entitled Gwalia Deserta.
Four some reason, when Pete Seeger set it to music he changed Davies's words
and one couplet got lost altogether:
To the south things are sullen
Say the pink bells of Brecon
Years ago we set to music snd recorded another Idris Davies poem about his
home town, When April Came To Rhymney. It's still one of our favourites.
When April came to Rhymney
In shower and sun and shower
The green hills and the brown hills
Could sport some simple flower
And sweet it was to fancy
That even the blackest mound
Was proud of its single daisy
Rooted in bitter ground
And old men would remember
Young men would be vain
And the hawthorn by the pithead
Would blossom in the rain
And the blackest streets of evening
They had their magic hour
When April came to Rhymney
In shower and sun and shower
We plan to record it again soon.
Watch the pronunciation of Rhymney: It's RHum-nee, with the RH sound quite
distinct. Don't say Rim-nee!
Mick Tems
Paul
Abby Sale <NO-SPA...@ft.newyorklife.com> wrote in message
news:ovfmctspnqu0g9n8f...@4ax.com...
You will find Utah Phillips' 'Starlight on the Rails' online:
http://www.utahphillips.org/songbook/index.html
paulS.
Darwin, Australia.
Barry Rueger
(on the internet) to the radio station that is now my home. WMMT is
located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, right in the heart of coal country.
In particular I recommend "Deep In Tradition", hosted by Rich Kirby,
which airs from 3:30 to 6:30 on Tuesdays. Rich has a very great
knowledge of Appalachian music, and constantly presents music that
astonishes me. Songs about coal mining are a regular feature on his
show.
You might also keep your eyes open in coming months for "You Can't
Tell the Singer From The Song", a documentary by Appalshop film maker
Mimi Pickering about Hazel Dickens. Her songs about coal mining (and
organizing) are among the best.
WMMT is at http://www.appalshop.org/wmmt.
Or check out Appalshop itself at http://www.appalshop.org.
Barry Rueger
WMMT Radio
delete delete from address to reply directly
===================================
Barry Rueger & Victoria Fenner
Bagatelle Communications & Management (613) 274-4441
22 Ashburn Drive Fax (613) 274-4442
Ottawa, Ontario K2E 6N3
http://www.synapse.net/~rueger/
Cheryl
he is from, I like to tune them in. They play a really eclectic line up of
stuff. Nice variety! Glad they're on the net now!
Peace!
Peace & have a nice day! Cheryl Harrell-- A T2 diabetic Married To A T1
diabetic...
Personal Quote: "The best thing you can do for your diabetes is to always keep
your faith in Jesus no matter what".. By: My folksinger friend ADG
Diana Gregory
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
>sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
>discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
>work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
> What I already have:
>
> Dark as a Dungeon
> Coal Miner's Prayer
> Coal Miner's Daughter
> Coorie Doon
> The Collier Laddie
> Miner's Life
> 16 Tons
>
> Any other suggestions?
Since I've got 400 messages to go, but not enough time
right now to go through them all, these may have been
mentioned already - apologies if they have:
Gordon Lightfoot:
Boss Man
Mother of a Miner's Child
Tom Paxton:
High Sherrif of Hazard
Rob Derrick
Joe Fineman wrote:
>
> The following songs are on MacColl's _British Industrial Ballads_:
>
> The Blantyre Explosion
> Fourpence a Day
> The Collier Laddie
> The Coal Owner & the Pitman's Wife
> The Durham Strike
>
> Some years ago I heard, once, a song in praise of workers generally.
> It had one stanza about the miners, with the beautiful line
>
> Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.
OK, I do remember this one, from the singing of Ewan MacColl and Peggy
Seeger. In fact, it is one of the early lyrics I transcribed from record
to paper. On a typewriter. And somewhere, I still have that original
paper. But at the moment, I'm not sure where it is. My faded memory
gives the chorus as something like:
So fill up your glasses with whiskey and beer
And drink a good toast to a happy new year.
... or something like that.
I also remember a verse that ended:
May your pleasures be many, your troubles be few
And may you bless the day you made one out of two.
Anyway, this lyric is one I didn't see anyone else mention. Nor
can I say I ever heard a recorded performance. I learned it from
a song circle group in MPLS (bless you all). It is a great song.
Only other thing I know about David Dodds is that he also authored
"The Magpie" ("Oh, the magpie brings us tidings, of news both fair
and foul..."), which I have heard performed by the duo, Magpie.
I Can Hew
written by David Dodds
Chorus:
I can hew, boys, I can hack it out
I can hew the coal, I can dance and shout
I can hew boys, coal that's black and fine
I'm a collier lad, working down the mine
On Saint Monday's day, oh I do admire
When I sits at home with me own coal fire
Then it's off to the pub for a glass or two
For to work on a Monday, that would never do
Well I likes me whiskey and I likes me beer
I'll drink fourteen pints, and I'll not feel queer
I can hold my liquor good as any man
And I'll dance and sing as long as I can
Well me boy's fourteen, he's a strappin' lad
And he'll go to the pits soon, just like his dad
And when Friday comes, we'll pick up our pay
And we'll drink together to round out the day
Oh it's when I'm dead, Lord I know full well
I'll not go to heaven, I am bound for hell
And my pick and shovel Old Nick he will admire
And he'll set me hewin' coal for his own hellfire
--
+-------------------+ \\\|///
| Rob Derrick | \\ - - //
| ro...@lanl.gov | ( @ @ )
| ro...@sgi.com +-------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo--------+
+--------------| SGI, 102 Central Park Square |
| Los Alamos, NM 87544 |
| Office (505)667-2155 |
| Pager (505)669-1638 |
| Home (505)662-4866 |
| SGI Voice Mail: 2755, MS DWR-298 |--+
+-------------------------Oooo-----+ |
| oooO Th( )ace Left |
| ( )tent) /ally Blank |
+-------------| \ ( (_/ |----------+
|The Basement +---\_)-------------------+ |
| Gamers @ http://reality.sgi.com/robd/gamer/ |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Bruce Olson
>
> sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote:
> >
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> >and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> >sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> >discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> >work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
> >
> > What I already have:
> >
> > Dark as a Dungeon
> > Coal Miner's Prayer
> > Coal Miner's Daughter
> > Coorie Doon
> > The Collier Laddie
> > Miner's Life
> > 16 Tons
> >
> > Any other suggestions?
>
If you can take them in wholesale quantities go to www.bookfinder.com
and in the author box put in 'George Korson'.
Bruce Olson
--
Old English, Irish and, Scots: popular songs, tunes, broadside
ballads at my website (no advs-spam, etc)- www.erols.com/olsonw
or click below <A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw"> Click </a>
Bruce Olson
>
> Diana Gregory wrote:
> >
> > sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> > >and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> > >sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> > >discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> > >work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
> > >
> > > What I already have:
> > >
> > > Dark as a Dungeon
> > > Coal Miner's Prayer
> > > Coal Miner's Daughter
> > > Coorie Doon
> > > The Collier Laddie
> > > Miner's Life
> > > 16 Tons
> > >
> > > Any other suggestions?
> >
>
> If you can take them in wholesale quantities go to www.bookfinder.com
> and in the author box put in 'George Korson'.
>
> Bruce Olson
>
In Shoemaker's "Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania" are:
"Down in a Coal Mine", and "The Mines of Avondale"
(And such variety as [D'Urfey's] "To horse, to
horse...Newmarket", "Gilderoy", [Lowe's] "Mary's Dream", [Mrs.
John Hunter's {nee Ann Home}] "Alknomook" [also falsely
attributed to no less than 3 Americans], [Tanahill's] "Jessie the
Flower O'Dunblane" and "The Braes o' Balquhither", "The Mistletoe
Bough", "The Bard of Armagh", Jock o' the Side", "Blue Bells of
Scotland", "Minnehaha", "The Lushbaugh Girls [Buffalo Gals],
"Maggie May","The Melody of Rain", "The Dublin Hunt [Kilrudery
Hunt, to Sheila Na Guira], and "The man I look out for" [Joe
Bowers])
Robert Haigh
" Down in the Mine in Crowsnest Pass,
It's the men that die in labor..."
Robert Haigh
www.wumb.org
Boston-Worcester-Cape Cod
bogus address
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for.
Welsh ones. What about non-Anglophone countries with big mining
industries? Songs in Russian, Xhosa, Polish, Punjabi, Turkish,
Chinese...?
========> Email to "jc" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce. <========
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html food intolerance data and recipes,
freeware logic fonts for the Macintosh, and Scots traditional music resources
Edward Blayzor
sionnach
"sionnach" wrote:
>
> >
> > Farewell To The Rhondda
>
> Ah. Now *that* I know I've heard... probly on one of my Mam's old LPs.
Now here's funny- when Mick mentioned this, I thought I'd heard it 10-15
years ago, when my Mam's record player was still working, but couldn't have
told anything about it to save my life. Three weeks later, in the shower, I
suddenly found myself singing:
Farewell the colliery worker, the miner and the cap
Farewell you Rhondda valley girls, we never will come back
The mines they all are closing, the valleys they are doomed
There's no work in the Rhondda, boys, we'll be in London soon.
But ALL that came back was the chorus- nothing of the verses. Memory is a
funny thing...<G>
(Mick, *is* this the song you meant?)
sionnach
"Mick Tems wrote:
> Watch the pronunciation of Rhymney: It's RHum-nee, with the RH sound quite
> distinct. Don't say Rim-nee!
OT: a pet peeve- Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon", with multiple repetitions of
Reeeeeee-aaaaa-non, and all the American girls named after the song, all of
whom *also* mispronounce it as "Reeannon".
Only girl's name related to a song that annoys me more is "Lorelei". (I
mean, why on earth would anyone name their child after an evil man-killing
creature??)
Laura Munzer
> "Mick Tems wrote:
> > Watch the pronunciation of Rhymney: It's RHum-nee, with the RH sound
quite
> > distinct. Don't say Rim-nee!
>
>
I recently saw ROger McGuinn in concert, and he now pronounces it properly-
and taught the audience to do so as well.
Laura
Mick Tems
Yes. Frank Hennessy's anthem to the miners of the Rhondda which (from
memory) goes like this. I was talking to Frank the other day... he's in good
form. In the car going up to Lancaster Festival on Good Friday, I was
listening to his Radio Wales show and he did a blistering segment on cajun
music, with a long interview with the founder of Swallow records... and all
this on mainstream radio, not on a specialist folk show!
Your chorus is OK, except for 'muffler', not 'miner', in the first line.
> Farewell the colliery worker, the muffler and the cap
> Farewell you Rhondda valley girls, we never will come back
> The mines they all are closing, the valleys they are doomed
> There's no work in the Rhondda, boys, we'll be in London soon.
>
My father was a miner, his father was before him,
They always had been proud to work below
Since they fell 'neath Robens' axe, all the lads have got the sack
And it's off to work in London they must go.
No more the chapel singing that long ago has left us
In the public house no more the miners' song
For the population's dropping as the pit wheels they are stopping
And we can't afford to stay here very long.
Treorci and Treherbert, Tonypandy and Tynewydd,
Ton Pentre, Ystrad Rhondda, all adieu,
For we can't sit back and wait while Parliament debates
So a fond farewell we'll say to all of you.
*Robens' Axe* refers to Lord Alf Robens, the Labour minister in the 1960s
who launched a devastating pit closure programme, two decades before
Thatcher. Labour are doing it again now to the steelworkers, sitting back
and watching while Corus gets rid of 3,000 jobs in Wales. It all goes to
show that we can't trust *ANY* English political party with our affairs.
The names in verse three are all mining communities in Rhondda Fawr, the
larger of the two Rhondda valleys.
> In article <9bcj70$8goo2$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de>, "sionnach"
--
Mick Tems
is in the Oral Traditions Department at the Museum of Welsh Life at St
Fagans). We also heard it from the Elliots in Co Durham, who had picked it
up phonetically from Welsh miners who went to work there:
Yr wyf i little collier
Yn weithio underground
The rope will never torri
When I go lan a lawr
Bara menyn when I'm hungry
A chwrw when I'm dry
Gwely when I'm tired
A nefoedd when I die.
(I am a little collier
Working underground
The rope will never break
When I go up and down
Bread and butter when I'm hungry
Beer when I'm dry
Bed when I'm tired
And heaven when I die).
which reminds me of Harri Webb's wonderful History and Prophecy, which we
did years ago on our Dyddiau Gwynion Ionawr/Snowy Days of January album:
Written back in the 60s, it looks forward to a time when (guess what?) all
the pits have been closed and the price of oil is soaring!
They're coming down to Williamstown
With their faces full of worry
For so we're told, they want miners bold,
And they want them in a hurry
They want coal again and they want men
Who will go down the hole and cut it
But the miners' lads have asked their dads
And they've told them where they can put it
For the lands of oil are on the boil
And the tankers they have stopped sailing
And the stupid swines who closed the mines
Are wringing their hands and wailing
And our Government friends are at their wits' ends
For fuel they're in trouble
They sold their souls for North Sea gold
But that was a North Sea bubble
And from underground there comes no sound
In seams that have been forgotten
And the pithead gear stand gaunt and drear
Over towns that were left to go rotten
And there's many a louse up in Hobart House
Who is wishing that he had heeded
All the men who said: Before you are dead
Those pits are going to be needed
For they treated with scorn the best men born,
No land ever bred men finer;
So serve them right in their sorry plight
For doing the dirt on the miner!
*Williamstown* is on the edge of the Rhondda, above Penygraig and
Tonypandy
*Hobart House* was the London headquarters of the National Coal Board
>In article <9bck1c$8g31e$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de>, "sionnach"
--
Neil Thompson
years ago, a bit of a protest song if I remember rightly.
Regards,
Neil
sionnach
"Mick Tems" wrote:
> A wee one which we got from Wyn Thomas here in in Llantrisant (his wife
Beth
> is in the Oral Traditions Department at the Museum of Welsh Life at St
> Fagans). We also heard it from the Elliots in Co Durham, who had picked it
> up phonetically from Welsh miners who went to work there:
>
> Yr wyf i little collier
> Yn weithio underground
> The rope will never torri
> When I go lan a lawr
> Bara menyn when I'm hungry
> A chwrw when I'm dry
> Gwely when I'm tired
> A nefoedd when I die.
hah. I just amazed myself by getting all of that except "lan a lawr".
Must have picked up more than I thought last time I did Cwrs Cymraeg. :-D
I've forwarded it to my sister who's fluent as I think she'll get a kick
out of it.
palm...@gmail.com
steph.harrison...@gtempaccount.com
> Help me out, folks, I'm sure someone will know this one and who ( I believe a
> Scotsman) wrote it:
> School day's over,
> Come on then, John.
> It's time you were getting your pit boots on.
> It's time you were handling a pick and shovel.
> You start at the pit today.
> It's time you were learning a pitman's job.
> And earning a pitman's pay.
> sionnach wrote:
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> > sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> > discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> > work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
> >
> > What I already have:
> >
> > Dark as a Dungeon
> > Coal Miner's Prayer
> > Coal Miner's Daughter
> > Coorie Doon
> > The Collier Laddie
> > Miner's Life
> > 16 Tons
> >
> > Any other suggestions?
> David Rintoul
> david....@sympatico.ca
> http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.rintoul
> "In prosperity, our friends know us. In adversity, we know our friends."
> J. Churton Collins
It was Ewan McColl who wrote the song and it appears on the BBC Radio Ballads on Topic records. Despite the name Ewan McColl he was a Manchester man and also wrote "I'm a rambler from Manchester Way" and "Dirty Old Town" on Topic Records.
pcs
and
The Ballad of the Springfield Mine (Mining) Disaster