caME FORTO SIXG in Chicalo and the Midwest Vol.8 No.3 Summer1882 $1.SD

Hazel Dickens: Working Music COME FOil TO SIKe Vol.aKo.I Summer18a2 Subscription information BuyCFTSat: Adler House, Libertyville Arts Center, 1700 N. Milwau­ Regular U.S. bulk rate subscription: $6 kee, Libertyville, lL; Andy's Front Hall, RD 1, Wormer First-class U.S. subscription: $9 Rd., Voorheesville, NY; Clearwater, 112 Market St., Canadian subscription (mailed first-class): $9 Poughkeepsie, Y; Coffeehouse Extempore, 325 Cedar Europe: Surface mail $7.50 Air mail $10 Ave., Minneapolis, MN; Earl of Old Town, 1615 . Wells, Asia: Surface mail $6.50 Air mail $10 Chicago; Eat a BOOk, 1315 N. Lake St., Aurora, lL; Elderly Instruments, 541 E. Grand River, East Lansing, Back issues: $2.50 each, mailed first-class. Ml; Felten's Record Emporium, 122 W. Hughitt, Iron Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for Mountain, Ml; The Fox Trap, 2470 N. Lincoln, Chicago; complete list of available back issues. The Fret Shop, 5210 S. Harper, Chicago; Golden Ring Folklore Center, 1004 S. lOth St., Manitowoc, WI; Gra­ Send checks and inquiries to COME FOR TO SING, 917 maphone Hecords, 2663 N. Clark, Chicago; Home-Made Mu­ W. Wolfram, Chicago, lL 60657. sic, 218 Osborne St. South, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Home­ stead Pickin' Parlor, 6625 Penn Ave. South, Minneapo­ lis, MN; Tom and Anne Jones Music School, 320 E. Roo­ sevelt Rd., Wheaton, lL; No Exit Coffeehouse, 7001 N. Staff Glenwood, Chicago; Orphans, 2462 N. Lincoln, Chicago; Editor: Emily Friedman Pennsylvania Dutch Hobbies, 208 W. Main St., Kutztown, PA; Rambling Conrad's Folklore Center, 4318 Hampton Distribution Manager: Betty Nudelman Blvd., Norfolk, VA; Rose Records, 3175 N. Broadway, Chicago; Rose Records, 3261 N. Ashland, Chicago; Spruce And the sprlng chickens ~'o got this Ilttle one to Tree Instruments and Repair, 819 E. Johnson, Madison, market were: The Ark (long may It float l ), George WI; Tobias Music, 5013 Fairview Ave., Downers Grove, Armstrong, Gerry Armstrong, Thom Bishop, Sandy ByeI', lL; and Val's Halla Records, 723~ South Blvd., Oak Phil Cooper, Mike Curry, Hazel Dickens, Jack Donahue, Park, lL. Pat Dragisic, Don Drake, Josh Dunson, Slim Dusty, the Fox Valley Folklore Society, Emily Friedman, Come for to Sing is distributed in the Chicago area by Barry Haine, Peter Hawkins, John Henderson, Priscilla Prairie News Service, 2404 W. Hirsch, Chicago, lL 60622 Herdman, Jim Jones, Henry Lawson, A.L. Lloyd, L. (312-384-5350). Contact CFTS for information on out-of­ Lubin, Trevor Lucas, Charlie Maguire, Mariposa in the town information. Schools, Rich Markow, Bob Menna, Margaret Nelson, Betty Nudelman, Caroline Perry, Philo Records, John Roberts, Norman Rodger, Steve Romanoski, Mary Salzer, Erika Frank Schaub, David, Linda, and Anya Siglin, KotesSSuch Judy TetZlaff, Art Thieme, Steve Tomashefsky, Juel COME FOR TO Sl G is published quarterly by Song in tl,e Wind, Inc., a non-profit Illinois corporation. We Ulven, the l'leavers, and 1'1artyn \~yndham-Read. welcome all donations and love new subscriptions! Any donation of $6 or more-rs-rewarded'with a one-year Dedicated to... bulk-rate subscription, or a one-year renewal. Dur long-suffering friend and transcriptionist John Roberts who was faced with transcrlblng and copylng \'/e are glad to grant reprint permission for most of eleven ~ongs--and took a tumble while Morris dancing the articles we publish; however, we would appreciate YOUI' writing to us first and asking--you neve~ know and ended up in an arm cast. He somehow managed to when we may have made a mistake In an artlcle. get the work done, only a few days after the cast was removed. What more could we ask of him? Cover photo of Hazel Dickens by Emily Friedman Contents Copyright 1982 by Song in the Wind, Inc. Coming Up ...... • ...... 3 Carrying On ...... 4 • The Fox Valley Follies ...... 5 Thought for this i su • Haze 1 Dickens ...... 6-8 Mariposa in the Schools 10-11 Sumer is icumen in, Martyn Wyndham-Read . . 12-15 Lhude sing cuccu! The Ark ...... 22-23 Groweth sed, and bloweth med, Sources: Lady Isabel and Mister Fox 24-25 And springth the wude nu-­ Links on the Chain • . 27 Sing cuccu! Blues Report ...... 28 --Anonymous verse from around 1250 A.D., said to Knee-Deep in Bluegrass ...... 29 be the oldest English-language "modern" folk song Reviews ...... 30-34 Songs...... 9, 16-21, 25-26, 35-37 Products and Services .....•...38-44

2 BazeIDickens:1Vor~g People's Singer American mountain life and struggles thers worked in the mines. My fath­ HD: It wasn't until I was grown, are a major source of subject matter er didn't go in the deep mines him­ even though I had sung all my life, for folK songs old and new, and self, but he had a truck in which he although not professionally --with there are 'few songwriters who have hauled timber for the mines, to hold friends, or around the house. I sang captured the essence of the people the roo fs up. some in church, as well, a cappella of the Eastern mountains as well as --they didn't allow instruments in Hazel Dickens, the West Virginia My father was a staunch Democrat; he the church. I love that style of singer and songwriter now based in would rather have died than vote Re­ singing. Washington, D.C. Her startlingly publican. We thus grew up with some­ keen voice, passionate lyrics, and thing of an awareness of what work­ EF: I take it you didn't learn to dedication to progressive causes ing-class people have to go through play an instrument at home? have made her one of the foremost --what they're faced with. American topical musicians, despite HD: The guys --my brothers --learn­ her relatively rare concert appear­ EF: Did the family sing songs that ed to play. It wasn't actually all ances. reflected union or class conscious­ that frowned-on in my family, be­ ness? cause my aunt played. Hazel was a featured artist at the 1982 University of Chicago Folk Fes­ HD: If they liked a particular song, EF: And your father. tival, and during that weekend, on they would never actually sit down January 3D, 1982, she talked with and discuss why they were singing it. HD: And his very favorite sister CFTS editor Emily Friedman about her But in retrospect, I find that a lot was an old-time banjo picker and upbringing, belief, work, and pro­ of those songs did have good lyrics singer. I never heard her, myself, fessional history as a solo artist, and did have something to say. I'm but he was very rpoud of her. And half of the duo of Hazel and Alice sort of proud that the family had one of my sisters wanted to learn (Gerrard), and member of the Strange good taste in songs. , and he let her take a few Creek Singers (Hazel, Alice, Mike lessons from a neighbor, a mountain Seeger, Lamar Grier, and Tracy Most of the stuff that we were ex­ woman who knew how to pick guitar. Schwartz). Excerpts of that conver­ posed to was very traditional, or sation are presented here. from the Grand Old Opry on Saturday EF: What instruments did your bro­ night, or from people in the area who thers take up? Hazel has appeared on numerous al­ played and sang. We really didn't bums, including Hazel and Alice have a lot of exposure to the outside HD: Banjo, a little guitar, the man­ (Rounder 0027), Won't You Come and world. dolin. The problem was in being Sing for Me? (Folkways 31034), Hazel able to afford to buy an instrument; Dickens and (Rounder EF: Where did you grow up? most of the time we couldn't afford 0054), and the anthology Come All to buy one. You Coal Miners (Rounder 4005). She ,D: In Mercer County, West Virginia. was also a key singer and writer for I was born in Montcalm, but we moved EF: How old were you when you deci­ the sound track of the film "Harlan around a lot because my dad had to, ded you wanted to get more involved County, U.S.A." Her first solo al­ in order to make a living. in music? bum, Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People (Rounder 0126), was released EF: When did you start making music HD: I suppose it was more a case of last year. Following the interview, on your own? having the opportunity, rather than we have printed "Lost Patterns," a starting to want to do it. I had al­ song from that fine recording. ways liked music, and would like to have played it more. But I was ~~~~~.~~~ ~~~.~ grown and had moved up north to Bal­ EF: Was there a musical.... tradition timore to find work before I started within your family? working in music.

HD: My father was an old-time banjo In the beginning, survival was fore­ picker and a very great singer. He most in my mind --getting a job and could have made a living in the trying to support myself. I did get music field, had he wanted to; but factory jobs, but they didn't pay he chose religion instead and became very much, and by the time you paid a preacher. He virtually never your board for the week and bought played music after getting religion. your lunch for the week, you were He did sing gospel songs. Before lucky if you had enough left over that, he had sung folk songs and to afford a movie. This was in the played breakdowns and such on the early 1950s. I finally did save banjo. That was in Carroll County, enough money to afford a used one, Virginia; my mother was from Floyd so that was one dream realized County, Virginia. The families had there. But at that point, I still both been in that part of the coun­ didn't have anything further in mind try for quite a long time. than entertaining my own self. There still was no thought of doing I came from a very large family; it as a profession. That came years there were 11 children. I came from later, when I began to meet people in the city who were also interested a rather poor background. A lot of Photo by Emily Friedman my relatives were miners; all my bro­ • in music. In the beginning, we were HD: When we made the first record (on Folkways), it was the height of the bluegrass craze, and everything we sang, we sang as fast as we could sing it. Then, later on, we started doing a little bit more exploring, going back through old tapes and re­ cords, and we found out that there were all kinds of songs that didn't have to be done at breakneck speed. We also got to know more about what our tastes, or likes and dislikes, were, and became more selective. The more you perform, the more you do something on even a semi-profes­ sional level, the more you're forced into that position, to consider things more.

EF: That was a long-lived partner­ ship.

HD: At least 10 years. We haven't sung together for at least 5 years now. It was something we had done together for a long time, and with something like that, you either take it beyond what you've already done, or it becomes tiresome after a while.

EF: The first song of yours that I ever heard ~Ias "Mannington Mine Dis­ aster" (on Come All You Coal Miners). Photo by Emily Friedman I don't know where that comes in the chronology of your writing. Did you start out writing topical material just purely into the music, not poli­ an every-now-and-then group, which like that? tics. It was just such a joy to ac­ we didn't take too seriously. tually be able to do it, and to find HD: I think I did. I think the all these people who were so enthu­ EF: Concerning Hazel and Alice-­ first real topical song, the first "country protest" song, was "Black siastic about it! It \~ent along for when did the two of you start per­ Lung." And I think it's one of my quite a few years like that, just forming together? playing for friends, maybe getting best songs. It was written from a just small jobs with friends in lit­ HD: It was back about 1962, I guess. real gut level. Up to that point tle local bars that probably never Again, it was not something we --and maybe that's why it hadn't had music before. thought of doing professionally; it been so successful --I was probably was just that we got together at a not writing on a gut level. I was EF: Who were you working with at party at her house, and we liked the perhaps afraid to put that out there. that time? sound of it. I think the first I would look at other people's writ­ thing we did outside of a living ing and say that mine wasn't as good HD: . I met him not too room was the festival in Galax, Vir­ as they could have done. long after I got to . He ginia, which at that time was pretty was working in a hospital there. My small. We went down to enter their EF: Were you influenced by any oth­ brother was in that hospital for tu­ talent contest. We did Carter Fam­ er people who have worked in this berculosis, and he also played music. ily songs with autoharp and guitar. kind of vein? Billy Edd Wheeler, Sara Ogan Gunning, Nimrod Workman, He met I~ike at the hospital. So Bluegrass and Carter Family. So then Mike asked my brother where any of them? his family was; Mike wanted to come EF: Were you using the strange har­ down and meet the rest of us, and he monies then? HD: No. I was familiar with Sara did, and it was the beginning of a Ogan Gunning's work. I really did­ long friendship. HD: Not really. On some of the n't know that much about Billy Edd. Carter Family stuff, we did switch What I knew from him weren't his In the beginning, we were playing parts. But most of the stuff that good songs; it was his commercial with a band; there was a lead singer, was more stylistic got worked out country stuff. I didn't take him and Mike was one of the sidepeople later on, because invariably we too seriously. Later, he came up and did some singing. He played would choose songs that you couldn't with "Coal Tattoo" and all these fiddle for that group, I believe. I sing regular bluegrass tenor on. great songs. That's the way the sys­ played bass. It was a five-piece It's hard for two women to sing to­ tem is; if you don't write a top-40 bluegrass band. I sang tenor, and gether and do that, unless one of song, it won't get played, and peo­ Mike would sometimes sing third part. them has a real low voice; and our ple don't get to hear you. He was ranges were not that different. probably writing that stuff all a­ long, but he couldn't get any expo­ After that, Mike joined the New Lost sure for it. It's the same with me; City Ramblers, and it was years lat­ EF: The difference between the there's lots of people who have er, after Alice Gerrard and I had sound on Won't You Come and Sing for heard "Don't Put Her Down" and some already been singing together for a He? and Hazel and Alice is striking, of my more popular songs, who have long time, that we decided to form not only in terms of material but in the Strange Creek Singers. It was terms of the sound of the harmonies. (Continued on next page) 7 never heard "1'lannington I~ine" or writing my best songs then, and to You can't just win one thing today "Black Lung" or "The Yablonski have that support at that time was and think that it's going to be all Murder." really great. I'm basically a real right tomorrow. You win today, and shy person. you will have to win it, or some­ EF: But "Don't Put Her Down" is a thing else, allover again tomorrow. pretty high-consciousness song ... EF: But you're a great songwriter. EF: What role do you see music HD: It is, but it got exposure HD: I don't always feel that way. playing in this effort? Does it through New Riders of the Purple still have an organizing role, as it Sage, who recorded it and spread it EF: But you're one of the most did when the Almanac Singers were around,quite a bit. noted songwriters in the country! active in the 1930s and 1940s? at among women songwriters; among EF: When did you begin to get in­ all songwriters. Come to think of HD: It's still real important. volved more actively in political it, that's one thing about you. That was a different time; there are work? There are many women songwriters \'/ho so many more threats now than there confine their work to women's issues were then. But I think a lot of HD: That didn't really occur while exclusively, but you have written people are starting to listen to the I was working with Alice and Mike, songs about a wide range of issues lyrics, the content, of the songs but more \·,hen I would go off on my dealing with oppression and solidar­ more than they used to. I really own to sing as a solo. And that ity. think it's a sign for all of us, a didn't come about because 1 had good sign. I've talked to a lot of nerve enough to go off on my own, HD: Well, you know, I can't separ­ songwriters who used to just write but because I had written some coal­ ate it like some people do. I real­ anything, but who now spend time to mining songs, and some of the mining ize that women have had a hard time, produce one good song with good ly­ activist groups picked up on that. and I think they probably always rics. And they would have functions and will. I think most oppressed people rallies and poor people's gatherings are always going to have a hard time EF: You are a representative of an like the one at Horse Creek, Ken­ --nobody's going to clear the path endangered culture in this country, tucky, when they asked me to come for us. It's going to be a fight. the Eastern mountain way of life. dO~1n and sing "Black Lung," and the So I can't see that much separation Do you have any hope that it will rally got on the Walter Cronkite among all of us. We all have the survive as a cultural whole? show. There were probably 800 poor same battle. and disabled miners there who were HD: In some areas, there's a chance trying to get their black-lung bene­ I think it's going to be very hard it will survive. I think a lot of fits. It was around 1970 or 1971. for all working-class people, be­ it has been kept alive by outside cause I don't think Reagan knows people who respected it and encour­ Also, Anne Romaine organized a South­ where they're coming from at all. aged people to hold on to their tra­ ern folk festival tour, on which you Nor does he care. You can't give ditions. So, in that sense, there's were encouraged to do political-type him an inch; if we do, he's going to been a lot more support in the last songs. That was a real good outlet take a mile. It's too bad, because ~w years, largely from outside peo­ for me; it gave me support. It was people have already fought and work­ pIe; it might have a better chance all pretty timely, because I was ed so hard to gain so little. now than it did be fore .1IiI

st Patterns by Hazel Dickens Hazel Dickens writes of this song, "When I wrote it, I was thinking about how hard it was, and continues to be, for low-income working-class people to survive. I was born into a family of poor working people, and everyone we knew was in the same boat. It gave me a close look at--and feel for--what it's like to spend one's entire life trying to stretch a paycheck far enough to cover no more than basic needs, never being able to get ahead, no matter how hard one tries. The constant worry and strain of day-to-day living this way take a really destructive toll on relationships." Hazel recorded the song on Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People (Rounder 0126). Reprinted by permission of the author and copyright holder. This song may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without the written permission of the author and the copyright holder.

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The worn-out linoleum has lost its pattern On the kitchen floor, And the woman who used to scrub it's Turned around and walked right out the door. The oilcloth on the table, She'd wiped so many times it's almost gone, And the elbows leaning on it Held the head of the man that drank alone.

Every now and then his empty can Would shatter the silence of the room As it landed on her pretty face, Still smiling from the broken picture frame. For lately, since she left him, He just sets at the kitchen table, drinking beer, Star1ng at that worn 11noleum, Trying to trace the lost patterns around his tears. Chorus: Well, it's hard luck, hard times, And too many rainy days. Hard-working people who Just get by from pay to pay. Well, it takes its toll upon us; We sometimes drive away the ones who care. From all the wearing and the tearing, The caring just walks right out the door.

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