Won' t You Come and Sing For Me

Anna & Elizabeth performing Hazel Dickens' song "Won' t You Come and Sing For Me".

Hazel Dickens

To mark that today would have been Hazel Dickens' 80th birthday (b. June 1, 1935), here she is singing an a cappella version of "Hills of Galilee".

Mama's Hands

Alison Krauss performs Hazel Dickens' song "Mama's Hands".

Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens died earlier today. I did a post with some slips of her last year (June 5, 2010). A singer and a songwriter—she performed in several great films, including Matewan and Harlan County U.S.A. A couple more videos in tribute to her.

Obituary from The Charleston Gazette.

A video about her from the Folk Alliance International.



A short clip from a couple years ago.



Hot Rize sings a song Dickens wrote "Won't You Come and Sing for Me".



For the finale of today's post, here is the scene from Matewan where Dickens sings "The Gathering Storm". Her singing starts about one minute into the clip.

Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens turned 75 earlier this week. You can listen to a interview she did with Marc Steiner. I did not make it to her concert in Baltimore this week, but I did see here perform at the Folklife Festival a couple years ago. Her are a couple videos.

Here is a video of "West Virgina, My Home" from her induction into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2008.



"The Mannington Mine Disaster"



"I Love to Sing the Old Songs"



I cannot find video of Dickens singing her song "Working Girl Blues", but to show how far her influence has extended here is a version of the song by the Japanese bluegrass band Daisyhill.