“Leatherwood”

[dhanners623]

Here’s a new tune called “Leatherwood,” based on my years of mining coal in Southeastern Kentucky.* I mixed those experiences with a few insights from oral histories I read online. The song was written for a Facebook songwriting challenge I’m taking part in. Every couple of weeks, you get a prompt, then write a song inspired by the prompt and post it to the group. The prompt here was the word “well.” That word was in an early draft of the song (“A miner’s life rarely ends well/You know they’re in heaven ‘cause they paid dues in hell”), but that line was subsequently edited out.

The song is played on my J-35, a guitar built for singing songs about coal mining in Kentucky.

* I have never mined coal, in Kentucky or anywhere else. I have, however, seen the coal mine at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

 

[zombywoof]

I love the almost percussive sound of that tune.  My hat is off to you though.  If I wrote about my life the best I could muster up would be a Middle Class Jewish Kid from New York blues.  

I have to assume you are familiar with the late Hazel Dickens. Born in the mid-1920s into a poor family in the coal mining country of West Virginia (many of her family worked in the mines with her her oldest brother falling prey to the black lung disease) she migrated to Baltimore in the 1950s where she fell in with Mike Seeger.  A pro-labor activist, Hazel continued to write songs about what she had seen growing up and with Alice Gerrard went on to become the first females to front a bluegrass band.  

[dhanners623]

49 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

I love the almost percussive sound of that tune.  My hat is off to you though.  If I wrote about my life the best I could muster up would be a Middle Class Jewish Kid from New York blues.  

I have to assume you are familiar with the late Hazel Dickens. Born in the mid-1920s into a poor family in the coal mining country of West Virginia (many of her family worked in the mines with her her oldest brother falling prey to the black lung disease) she migrated to Baltimore in the 1950s where she fell in with Mike Seeger.  A pro-labor activist, Hazel continued to write songs about what she had seen growing up and with Alice Gerrard went on to become the first females to front a bluegrass band.  

Thanks. Actually, I’m the product of a solidly middle-class family from rural East-Central Illinois and save for a hiccup or two, I’ve had a pretty normal and decent life and really have no complaints. I almost never write about myself because it would bore people to tears.

When I lived in St. Paul, I knew a local blues guy who lived (quite comfortably) off a sizable trust fund. I always wanted to ask him what the hell he could have the blues about, but never did. The maddening thing was he was pretty good.

[egoidealmusic]

Great tune.  And amazing to watch you play lefty on a right hand strung guitar!

[AnneS]

Nice, David—enjoyed the vibe. 

[Murph]

Well done.

So, they've traded the black dust for white dust...

Well done.

[Lars68]

I relly like that percussive style on the guitar. Great lyrics too!

Lars

[dhanners623]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

Well done.

So, they've traded the black dust for white dust...

Well done.

Thanks for the kind words. I may have to steal the black dust/white dust line….

[rbpicker]

Good song David.  The vibe and rhythm really helps to sell the theme of the song.  Well done.

the strumming style is perfect for the cool J35.

roger

[Murph]

5 hours ago, dhanners623 said:

Thanks for the kind words. I may have to steal the black dust/white dust line….

 

Steal away, brother.

[Red 333]

Terrific!

 

Red 333

[MissouriPicker]

Dave, your songs are very believable!  On some of them you might not have been there, but you sing from a perspective that is real and knowledgeable.  Nice work.  You’re a superb storyteller of stories about real people.

[dhanners623]

I had sworn this song was done and I was ready to move on, but the more I thought about Murph’s black dust/white dust comment, the more I realized that not only was he right, he was really right. It was something that needed to be pointed out in the song. So here’s the rewritten version, re-titled “Dust.”

Is this version “better”? I have no idea. Do I like it better? Yes. So, thanks, Murph. Guys from Illinois gotta help each other out….

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by dhanners623

[Murph]

I like it.

I might be biased, but it has truth and we see the price paid for both shades of dust. (oohh, did it again...)

That damned drug has surely ruined many lives, and now we have even more deadly ones working through the Heartland.

Well done, David.

Well done.

[dhanners623]

13 minutes ago, Murph said:

I like it.

I might be biased, but it has truth and we see the price paid for both shades of dust. (oohh, did it again...)

That damned drug has surely ruined many lives, and now we have even more deadly ones working through the Heartland.

Well done, David.

Well done.

Thanks. I’m originally from East Central Illinois (Casey, home of The World’s Largest Rocking Chair®…) and it is an area that has seen more than its share of that plague. It is largely rural, so there is little police presence. It is also mostly farmland, so meth cooks had ready access to anhydrous ammonia, one of their key ingredients. I’ve got buddies I grew up with who farm and ammonia theft was an issue they had to deal with, so they took various precautions. Meth cooks are an industrious lot, though, and most have moved on to a new process (sometimes known as “one-pot” or “shake-and-bake”) in which the anhydrous ammonia is created via a chemical reaction.

The area is close to I-70 and I-57 (which intersect in Effingham) so you’ve got easy access to east-west and north-south shipment routes.

[Holiday Hoser]

Very Nice! As Murph said government is working  the fentinal angle into all those lives as well.

[kelly campbell]

Enjoyed it as I always do.  Great job.  Thanks for sharing it.

[kwalker201]

Very nice tune David! I envy you guys that can write songs. I can't even draw a straight line on a piece of paper, much less write something to music.

Edited July 7, 2022 by kwalker201

[dhanners623]

4 hours ago, kwalker201 said:

Very nice tune David! I envy you guys that can write songs. I can't even draw a straight line on a piece of paper, much less write something to music.

Thanks for the kind words. As far as songwriting goes, just tell the story and throw in a few words that rhyme. Most folks can do that if they try. Just keep in mind you won’t be John Moreland your first time out, but you’ll get there.