If you want to help change minds and maybe even bring a flicker of sanity back into an insane world, please consider this documentary, currently in production, focused on defeating antisemitism through the power of American roots music:

https://wesingnonetheless.com

If you knew that the bluegrass cover of "Gin & Juice" was mislabeled on Kazaa & Limewire as Phish instead of The Gourds, then we should be friends.

We can still be friends if you didn't know that, but you gotta check this shit out first!

https://youtu.be/H4hGSR5njZE

Are you a #queer #musician who makes folk, blues, Americana, or country music?

Do you like listening to those things?

Follow the #queercountry hashtag so it's not just us out here! You know who you are!

The Untold History of Black Country Music
#BlackMastodon #Music #RootsMusic #Folk #Country #Blues #Bluegrass #CountrySwing #TexasSwing #Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKH_i6QD7tA

This #TuneTuesday @EisenTukan invites u to share songs that make you #FeelingFineAndLarkyOh

Hard picking one.. almost went for an #Offspring tune, who can sit still on those?

Instead i'll share Blood On The Bluegrass, by #LegendaryShackShakers

https://song.link/nl/i/1714324503

Today in Labor History August 1, 1921: Sheriff Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers were murdered by Baldwin-Felts private cops. They did it in retaliation for Hatfield’s role in the Matewan labor battle in 1920, when two Felts family thugs were killed by Hatfield and his deputies, who had sided with the coal miners during their strike. The private cops executed Hatfield and Chambers on the Welch County courthouse steps in front of their wives. This led to the Battle of Blair Mountain, where 20,000 coal miners marched to the anti-union stronghold Logan County to overthrow Sheriff Dan Chaffin, the coal company tyrant who murdered miners with impunity. The Battle of Blair Mountain started in September 1921. The armed miners battled 3,000 cops, private cops and vigilantes, who were backed by the coal bosses. It was the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, and the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The president of the U.S. eventually sent in 27,000 national guards. Over 1 million rounds were fired. Up to 100 miners were killed, along with 10-30 Baldwin-Felts detectives and 3 national guards. They even dropped bombs on the miners from planes, the second time in history that the U.S. bombed its own citizens (the first being the pogrom against black residents of Tulsa, earlier that same year).

Several novels portray the Battle of Blair Mountain, including Storming Heaven, by Denise Giardina, (1987), Blair Mountain, by Jonathan Lynn (2006), and Carla Rising, by Topper Sherwood (2015). And one of my favorite films of all time, “Matewan,” by John Sayles (1987), portrays the Matewan Massacre and the strike leading up to it. The film has a fantastic soundtrack of Appalachian music from the period. And the great West Virginia bluegrass singer, Hazel Dickens, sings the title track, "Fire in the Hole." She also appears in the film as a member of the Freewill Baptist Church.

You can read my complete article on the Battle of Blair Mountain, and Matewan, here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-of-blair-mountain/