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The high lonesome sound that touched so many, so deeply, could only have been born of both strife and fight-back in equal proportions. Singer/guitarist Hazel Dickens' sound was probably about as high and lonesome as it got. The soundtrack of "Harlan County USA" introduced her to the many outside of the country home she remained a visceral part of, even long after she'd physically moved on. Dickens didn't just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause.
She was born on June 1, 1935 in Mont-calm, W.Va.-one of the faceless towns dotting Appalachian coal country. Her father was an amateur banjo player who worked as a truck driver for the mines and ran a Primitive Baptist church each Sunday. Here was where...