Folk Songs of the Hills (Back Home/Songs of the Coal Miners) (1994)

About this title: This German import -- which goes for about double the cost of the U.S. CD Folk Songs of the Hills -- contains not only Folk Songs of the Hills and Back Home (but not the previously unreleased "This World Is Not My Home"), but also an entire additional Merle Travis album, the 1963 Songs of the Coal Mines, which deals with the lot and lives of coal miners. The songs include "Black Gold," "Harlan County Boys," "The Browder Explosion," and "Bloody Brethitt County," a song as savage as its title implies. The extra cost is worth it, in the absence of a separate U.S. CD release of Songs of ... read more

Tracks:

1. Nine Pound Hammer [Travis]
2. That's All [Travis]
3. John Bolin [Traditional]
4. Muskrat [Traditional]
5. Dark as a Dungeon [Travis]
6. John Henry [Traditional]
7. Sixteen Tons [Travis]
8. Possum Up a Simmon Tree [Traditional]
9. I Am a Pilgrim [Traditional]
10. Over by Number Nine [Travis]
11. Barbara Allen [Traditional]
12. Lost John [Traditional]
13. Black Gold
14. The Harlan County Boys
15. Pay Day Comes Too Slow
16. The Browder Explosion
17. Bloody Brethitt County
18. Here's to the Operator, Boys
19. The Miner's Wife
20. The Courtship of Second Cousin Claude
21. Miner's Strawberries
22. Paw Walked Behind Us with a Carbide Lamp
23. Preacher Lane
24. Dear Old Halifax

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.