Interview with Jack Wright on "All Things Considered" on NPR Radio

The Lonesome Pine Office on Youth announces the release of the two-CD set “Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields.”

Two years in the making, this pair of audio CDs contains 48 songs addressing various aspects of coal mining history and culture, including black lung, union organizing, environmental impacts and the contribution of coal to the national economy. The CDs are accompanied by a richly detailed book of liner notes with striking historical photographs.

“This has been a collaborative effort involving many people in the Wise County area as well as noted experts across the country,” said Paul Kuczko, director of the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth and executive producer of the CD project. “We’ve assembled more than two hours of music that truly gives the flavor of our coal mining heritage.”

According to Jack Wright, who produced the CDs and wrote the liner notes, the musical collection is a “hybrid” of old and new songs - some previously recorded, others produced specifically for this project. “We chose some songs that came out previously on independent labels and may not have been well known, but are vital in telling original stories from the heart of the coalfields,” Wright said. “In addition, we have well established artists represented here, like Ralph Stanley, Dwight Yoakum, Natalie Merchant, Tom T. Hall, Blue Highway and the Carter Family.”

Tom T. Sings Miss Dixie & TOM T. HALL

Producer(s): Dixie Hall
Genre: COUNTRY
Label: Blue Circle

This modest bluegrass session is evidence that, four decades after his recording debut, Tom T. Hall still ranks with country's greatest storytellers, and his beloved wife and songwriting partner, Dixie, is one big reason why. Though the mood is generally upbeat, funerals figure prominently in "Jimmy Martin's Life Story" (recorded shortly before yodeling guitarist Martin's 2005 death and humorously suggesting the avoidance of hard-drinking blues songs at the memorial ceremony), "A Headstone for Harry" and the great "A Hero in Harlan," an unsentimental look at a small-town soldier's return for burial. Elsewhere, pastoral memories of dirt roads, county borders and green hills surround acknowledgement about not fitting in with the young folks. Sometimes Hall's just along for a relaxed ride among an all-star cast of pickers and strummers, and he talks more than he sings. But then, he's always been a great talker. —Chuck Eddy