Hazel Dickens performs "West Virginia, My Home" at the 1978 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Watch Hazel Dickens and Phyllis Boyens perform "West Virginia, My Home" at the 1978 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Listen to more music from Hazel Dickens at:
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=2384

On April 22, 2011 our dear friend Hazel Dickens passed away. Hazel was one of the most important bluegrass singers of the last fifty years and the writer of very poignant songs drawn from her personal experience. Her ties to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways, and the Festival family were long-standing and very close.

Hazel Dickens became an accomplished bluegrass performer at a time when the genre was dominated by men. She was also an admired advocate for women's and worker's rights. Along with fellow musician and friend Alice Gerrard, she empowered countless female singers and musicians to succeed without sacrificing integrity. In this performance, Dickens, herself the eighth of eleven children born to a West Virginia mining family, pays homage to her home state.

To read a full appreciation of Hazel Dickens from Smithsonian Folkways Magazine, visit:
http://www.folkways.si.edu/magazine/2011_spring/archive_spotlight-hazel.aspx

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Category:

Music

[artemis133]

Thanks for posting this video. To be honest, I'd never heard of Hazel Dickens until recently, but as I live in the anthracite mining area of Northeast Pennsylvania, I can relate to Hazel and her music. May she rest in peace, a kindred soul.

[CurtisMateer]

Love Hazel.