Reply #25: Here is Merle Travis, probably the composer, singing it

[CBGLuthier]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfVvqLM_e4

My grandfathers worked the mines in Kentucky, and some of my maternal uncles too.

My paternal grandfather though left Kentucky and moved to southern Ohio along with a million others. Where in the early fifties he met and picked a little with Merle Travis. Not professionally, just hanging out. My dad remembers him coming to their house.

Matewan, the John Sayles film about coal mining and the union is a must see for everyone who may not understand exactly what the struggle is about. They are attempting to return those days to us.