Bluegrass Songs About Hard Times

Bluegrass came up among working people — coal miners, sharecroppers, mill workers, the rural poor of the southern mountains — and it never forgot. These songs are the genre’s tradition of singing about hard times: making rent, going hungry, getting laid off, drinking through it. Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times (Come Again No More)” goes back to 1854. Merle Travis wrote “Sixteen Tons” about the company-store economics that trapped coal miners. Steve Earle’s “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” carries the same line forward. Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty,” John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” Gillian Welch’s “One More Dollar” — each generation of writers kept the thread alive.

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