Absolutely brutally beautiful song. And the story behind it is just as beautiful. I thought it was some old traditional tune, but no, Darrell Scott wrote it in the 90s – his dad took him to Harlan to, indeed, trace his bloodline. And that’s where he saw the headstone with the song title on it, and noticed that sunlight never hit the hollers until ten in the morning. There’s so many covers that Justified got to use a different version for nearly every season, but they never used, in my opinion, the best version: Patty Loveless’. The story goes that she was recording it, and wasn’t nailing it in the booth, so her husband went out, found a photo of her dad, and then she sung it to her dad and, well……and you spend your life diggin’ coal from the bottom of your grave.
Wait a minute. If this is a movie that matters, why doesn’t a team of super heroes just fly in and fix everything?? I don’t get it. (Actually, it’s one of my favorite documentaries.)
It’s heartbreaking to see how little has improved for workers and West Virginians in particular. Dirtbags Like Joe Manchin and Duke Energy are still brutally exploiting them.I applaud the filmmakers here for their methods. Picking the side of humanity does not lessen the objective truth.
When Florence Reece sings to the United Mine Workers, you can feel the generations of wrong swelling up. It’s among the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen. They should show it in schools.
9 Comments
You’ll never leave Harlan alive.
I didn’t get the chance to touch upon it in the video, but the music in Harlan County, USA is wonderful.
Absolutely brutally beautiful song. And the story behind it is just as beautiful. I thought it was some old traditional tune, but no, Darrell Scott wrote it in the 90s – his dad took him to Harlan to, indeed, trace his bloodline. And that’s where he saw the headstone with the song title on it, and noticed that sunlight never hit the hollers until ten in the morning.
There’s so many covers that Justified got to use a different version for nearly every season, but they never used, in my opinion, the best version: Patty Loveless’. The story goes that she was recording it, and wasn’t nailing it in the booth, so her husband went out, found a photo of her dad, and then she sung it to her dad and, well……and you spend your life diggin’ coal from the bottom of your grave.
Wait a minute. If this is a movie that matters, why doesn’t a team of super heroes just fly in and fix everything?? I don’t get it. (Actually, it’s one of my favorite documentaries.)
It’s one of my favorites too
It’s heartbreaking to see how little has improved for workers and West Virginians in particular. Dirtbags Like Joe Manchin and Duke Energy are still brutally exploiting them.I applaud the filmmakers here for their methods. Picking the side of humanity does not lessen the objective truth.
When Florence Reece sings to the United Mine Workers, you can feel the generations of wrong swelling up. It’s among the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen. They should show it in schools.
Possibly….one of the greatest films in US history. To get any coverage is great