Rough Guide to Bluegrass

Call me a sucker for heart-wrenching songs about hard-living folks, but this compilation of 18 tracks assembled by journalist Dan Rosenberg, thematically focused on the havoc wreaked upon the land and people of the Appalachian region by the coal industry, ranks among the most sonorously poignant bluegrass collections ever produced. Double-Grammy recipient Kathy Mattea, daughter and granddaughter of West Virginia miners, contributes ‘Coal Tattoo’, which was extracted from Coal, her 2008 recording dedicated to the abolition of mountaintop removal mining. Hazel Dickens, the region's most celebrated artist-warrior, who passed away in April 2011, is represented by two compositions. ‘Coal Mining Woman’ encapsulates a lifelong crusade for women's, miners’ and labour rights linked with union participation. Dry Branch Fire Squad vocalist Ron Thompson joins Dickens for an extraordinarily compelling a capella rendition of ‘Black Lung’, a eulogy to two Dickens family members who died from cancer associated with working in coal mines.

Despite the grim subject matter, Rough Guide to Bluegrass is infused with poetically beautiful imagery. The Grascals’ string band showcase, ‘Blue Rock Slide’, conveys the giddy sensation of a buoyant romp through wooded hills and hollers. Claire Lynch's angelic voice transforms ‘A Canary's Song’ from a funereal lament into a heavenly lullaby. The inclusion of old-school masters such as Ralph Stanley (‘Dream of a Miner's Child’), Tom T Hall (‘A Hero in Harlan’) and The Country Gentlemen (‘Paradise’), attest to the album's bona fide historical inclinations, while Ricky Skaggs and Sierra Hull, among others, reinforce the project's contemporary relevance.