Coal Mining Top Ten: Coal Miner's Daughter (#2)

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Happy Thursday! Today I reach my second-favorite song about coal mining, and this is probably the ultimate "okay, who didn't see this one coming" song. It's probably one of the first songs you'd think of when someone raises the topic of songs dealing with coal mining. A certified classic that "everybody" knows, and here it is. #2: Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn On my last adventure I went to Van Lear, to see where this musical great began. Loretta Lynn's homestead really is "on a hill in Butcher Holler." While I didn't see the mines that her dad worked in (every word of that song is true, y'know), there is a "Coal Mining Museum" in Van Lear (it was closed by the time I got there). This song depicts life in the coal mining region: the hard work ("my daddy worked all night in the Van Lear coal mines, all day long in the field hoeing corn") from both parents ("mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard every day, well I've seen her fingers bleed") and the poverty ("in the summertime we didn't have shoes to wear, but in the wintertime we'd all get a brand new pair from a mail order catalog") that was overshadowed by love ("we were poor but we had love, that's the one thing that daddy made sure of"). In a lot of those old coal mining towns there's "not much left but the floor" because the poverty was too much, or because of mining disasters. Loretta Lynn painted the picture beautifully, and it stands for all time as a classic in country music -- and American music. Coal Miner's Daughter Written by Loretta Lynn Recorded by Loretta Lynn From Coal Miner's Daughter, 1971 I remember well the well where I drew water: