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Hazel Dickens On Mountain Stage

NPR | By Larry Groce
Published April 28, 2011 at 5:26 PM EDT
Pioneering folk singer Hazel Dickens, center, performs with Mollie and Tim O'Brien in 1997. Dickens died on Friday, April 22, at the age of 75.
Steven Wayne Rotsch
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Pioneering folk singer Hazel Dickens, center, performs with Mollie and Tim O'Brien in 1997. Dickens died on Friday, April 22, at the age of 75.

On Tuesday, April 26, 2011, Hazel Dickens was laid to rest in Princeton, W. Va. If ever one voice captured the spirit of the hard-scrabble southern West Virginia coal fields, it was hers.

When you hear Hazel's voice and songs, many words come to mind: honest, weathered, plain, deep, country, bold, distilled and undiluted, rugged and maybe a bit ragged. May Hazel rest in peace as her songs live on in the hearts of many.

This performance was recorded in 1997 on Mountain Stage's 400th episode. She performs three of her own songs, plus "Coal Tatoo" by another West Virginian, Billy Edd Wheeler.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Larry Groce
Larry Groce has been host and artistic director of West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage since its beginning in 1983. His taste and personality have helped set the tone of this long running radio and television series.
See stories by Larry Groce
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