Working girl blues : the life and music of Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens was an Appalachian singer and songwriter known for her superb musicianship, feminist country songs, union anthems, and blue-collar laments. Growing up in a West Virginia coal mining community, she drew on the mountain music and repertoire of her family and neighbors when establishing her own vibrant and powerful vocal style that is a trademark in old-time, bluegrass, and traditional country circles. Working Girl Blues presents forty original songs that Hazel Dickens wrote about coal mining, labor issues, personal relationships, and her life and family in Appalachia. Conveying sensitivity, determination, and feistiness, Dickens comments on each song, explaining how she came to write them and what they meant and continue to mean to her. Bill C. Malone's introduction traces Dickens's life, musical career, and development as a songwriter, In addition, Working Girl Blues features forty-one illustrations and a detailed discography of Dickens's commercial recordings.

• Acknowledgments p. ix
• Hazel Dickens: A Brief Biography p. 1 Bill C. Malone
• Songs and Memories p. 31 Hazel Dickens
• Mama's Hand p. 31
• A Few Old Memories p. 33
• You'll Get No More of Me p. 34
• West Virginia My Home p. 35
• My Better Years p. 38
• Working Girl Blues p. 40
• Scars from an Old Love p. 41
• Lost Patterns p. 42
• Scraps from Your Table p. 43
• Beyond the River Bend p. 44
• Won't You Come and Sing for Me p. 45
• Only the Lonely p. 47
• Rambling Woman p. 48
• Your Greedy Heart p. 49
• Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There p. 50
• It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song p. 52
• I Love to Sing the Old Songs p. 53
• Old Calloused Hands p. 54
• Rocking Chair Blues p. 55
• Pretty Bird p. 57
• Mount Zion's Lofty Heights p. 58
• Cowboy Jim p. 59
• Little Lenaldo p. 60
• Tomorrow's Already Lost p. 61
• I Can't Find Your Love Anymore p. 62
• Hills of Home p. 63
• Old River p. 65
• Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains from Your Hands p. 66
• They'll Never Keep Us Down p. 67
• Mannington Mine Disaster p. 70
• Coal Miner's Grave p. 72
• Black Lung p. 74
• Coal Mining Woman p. 75
• The Yablonski Murder p. 76
• Clay County Miner p. 78
• My Heart's Own Love p. 79
• America's Poor p. 81
• Freedom's Disciple (Working-Class Heroes) p. 83
• The Homeless p. 84
• My Love Has Left Me p. 85
• A Hazel Dickens Discography p. 87
• Index p. 99