Hard Hitting Songs For Hard Hit People cover

Hard Hitting Songs For Hard Hit People

Hazel Dickens

Album · 1980 · Rounder 0126

Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People was released by Rounder in 1980 (0126) and was Hazel Dickens’s first solo album. Ralph Rinzler wrote the sleeve notes. Dickens was born in Montcalm, West Virginia, into a family that worked in the coalfields; her father delivered timber to the mines and preached at a Primitive Baptist church, and several of her brothers worked underground.

Seven of the twelve songs are her own: “Old Calloused Hands,” “Scraps from Your Table,” “West Virginia, My Home,” “Tomorrow Is Already Lost,” “Lost Patterns,” “Rocking Chair Blues” and “They’ll Never Keep Us Down.” The others are Harlan Howard’s “Busted,” Si Kahn’s “Aragon Mill,” Adam Mitchell’s “Out Among the Stars,” Sara Carter’s “Lonesome Pine Special” and the traditional “Beautiful Hills of Galilee,” sung unaccompanied.

The album was recorded in four cities with a different group of players on each set of tracks. In Nashville, at Shook Shack, Ray Edenton (guitar), Buddy Spicher (fiddle), Lloyd Green (pedal steel), Pig Robbins (piano) and Henry Strzelecki (bass) play on “Busted,” “Old Calloused Hands,” “Out Among the Stars” and “Tomorrow Is Already Lost.” At Skyline Studio in New York, Tony Trischka (banjo), Barry Mitterhoff (mandolin), Evan Stover and Matt Glaser (fiddles), Roger Williams (Dobro) and Harley Campbell (bass) back “Scraps from Your Table,” “Lost Patterns” and “They’ll Never Keep Us Down,” with Gene Yellin and John Baker singing harmony. In Boston, at Perfect Crime Studio, Norman Blake (guitar), Nancy Blake (cello) and James Bryan (fiddle) play on “Aragon Mill” and “Lonesome Pine Special.” “West Virginia, My Home,” recorded in Springfield, Virginia, has John Baker on guitar, Ron Thomason on mandolin, Carl Nelson on fiddle, Roger Williams on Dobro and Carolyn Kellock on bass. “Rocking Chair Blues” features Russ Barenberg on guitar, Scott Billington on harmonica, Jim Guttman on bass and Roger Williams on Dobro.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Busted 2:33
  2. 2 Aragon Mill Source Recording Si Kahn · key C · 62 bpm 3:04
  3. 3 Old Calloused Hands 3:48
  4. 4 Scraps From Your Table Source Recording Hazel Dickens · key E · 115 bpm 2:54
  5. 5 Out Among the Stars Source Recording Adam Mitchell · key Bb · 64 bpm 3:31
  6. 6 West Virginia My Home Source Recording Hazel Dickens · key Eb · 60 bpm 4:32
  7. 7 Tomorrow's Already Lost 3:45
  8. 8 Lonesome Pine Special Source Recording A.P. Carter · key Bb · 106 bpm 3:32
  9. 9 Lost Patterns 4:10
  10. 10 Beautiful Hills Of Galilee 4:57
  11. 11 Rocking Chair Blues 4:20
  12. 12 They'll Never Keep Us Down 2:46

Share Playlist