R.I.P. Hazel Dickens, American Legend, Feminist Folk Singer, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fixture
Categories: R.I.P.
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| Jay Blakesberg |
| Hazel Dickens with Dolly Parton and Warren Hellman |
Described by the Washington Post as "a living legend of American music," Dickens used her 50-year career to advocate for the rights of women and laborers. The eighth of 11 children born to a poor coalmining family in West Virginia, Dickens began in her life as a touring musician in the early '60s, after meeting Mike Seeger (younger brother of the famous folksinger Pete Seeger) at a music festival in Baltimore.
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| prophead/Zooomr |
| Hazel and Warren in 2008 |
In 1976, Dickens contributed four songs to the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning coal mining documentary Harlan County, USA, including "Black Lung." She was also the subject of a 2001 film by Mimi Pickering, titled Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song.
Dickens was a favorite of San Francisco financier and investor Warren Hellman, who booked her at every Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. He told SF Weekly in 2006 that, every year, Dickens gives him "a hard time for an hour about being the rich man who lives on the hill."
Dickens died in Washington, D.C., this morning. You can hear more of her music at the
Smithsonian Folkways site, or in the videos below.
[h/t The Bay Citizen]
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