1313. Upper Big Branch Disaster (Poor Miner's Farewell) -- by SirCoughsalot

Another great song by SirCoughsalot. This is an adaptation of Aunt Molly Jackson's "Poor Miner's Farewell", which is where Bob Dylan got the melody for "Only a Hobo". Keeping the first verse and the chorus of the original song, SirCoughsalot wrote new words to tell the story of the twenty-nine miners killed in the blast which occurred on April 5, 2010 at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine at Montcoal in Raleigh County, West Virginia. An investigation found that both Massey Energy and the Mine Safety and Health Administration were to blame for the disaster. The report strongly condemned Massey's multiple failures to meet basic safety standards outlined in the Mine Act of 1977.

You can see SirCoughsalot's own performance of this song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33b70VtOjQ

You will also find many other excellent songs on his channel.

You can see a playlist of my mining songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CF909DA14CE415DF

For lyrics and chords of all my songs, please see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• upper
• big
• branch
• disaster
• coal
• miner
• mining
• mines
• aunt
• molly
• jackson
• dylan
• poor
• farewell
• sircoughsalot

[MyMoppet52]

Your song is excellent! The wording is incorrect. It is NOT an accident. It is negligence by the owners!!!! They even found a collateral damage assessment by the owners as to how much they would lose by shutting down the mines & making the federal mandated repairs and by the potential lawsuits of dead miners families. The lawsuits won (on the financial side), so repairs were not made. That is not an accident. It's always the same. It's cheaper to pay families of dead miners than to make repairs.

[raymondcrooke]

@MyMoppet52 Good comment. Maybe "some accident" should be seen as ironic ...

[marcoacca]

That's great too, Raymond. Thanks.

[raymondcrooke]

@marcoacca Thanks, Marco.

[raymondcrooke]

@123azfiq Yes, that makes sense. I think anyone trying to watch all my videos wouldn't have much time to do anything else!

[123azfiq]

@raymondcrooke i mean not ALL your videos. i've seen most of the videos especially the songs by Sudirman. i'll be watching your videos as soon as its uploaded...

[raymondcrooke]

@Tony2581 Thanks, Tony. SirCoughsalot did a great job in writing this one. By the way, I sang "Big Coal" at Folk Club last night.

[raymondcrooke]

@123azfiq That will keep you busy! Can you really watch all 1313 of my videos?? I look forward to your comments.

[raymondcrooke]

@lethe51 Thanks. Glad you liked it.

[raymondcrooke]

@Irelandrobert Thanks, Robert. SirCoughsalot is writing some good songs.