Bluegrass and old-time both came up in coal country, and the music carries the mines with it. These songs document the daily work — “Nine Pound Hammer,” “Sixteen Tons” — the danger (“Dream of the Miner’s Child”), and the bitter economics (“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” “L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore”). Merle Travis wrote two of the most enduring — “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark as a Dungeon” — at a single 1946 session. John Prine added “Paradise” in 1971, an indictment of the strip-mining that flattened a Kentucky town his family was from.

Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history.