“Mama’s Hand” was written by Hazel Dickens, the Appalachian singer and songwriter. She worked on the song for years, wanting to do justice to her mother, and it tells of the day she left home.
The song remembers the morning Dickens, a girl from a West Virginia coal community, let go of her mother’s hand and set out for Baltimore to look for work. It is a tender, aching song about leaving home, about a mother’s sacrifice, and about a bond that distance cannot break.
Lynn Morris recorded the song, and it gave its name to one of her albums.
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