RIP Hazel Dickens

[Alex Orr]

This country has lost one of the finest singers and songwriters it's ever seen.

Rest in Peace Ms. Dickens

[evanreilly]

Pioneering Women is a blue grass milestone!!
But my favorite and most haunting association/identification with Ms. Dickens is her brief appearance singing in the film Matewan. If that doesn't give one chill-bumps....

[Alex Orr]

If anyone isn't familar with Hazel and her music, I made a playlist a while back on Grooveshark that you can hear at

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/play...43519117?src=5

Most of that is drawn from her '80s albums on Rounder, which are all still in print and (IMO) are all essential bluegrass/roots albums. She also has several albums with Alice Gerard from the '70s that are also in print, available at Amazon, and are really landmark records in the genre.

[JeffD]

Oh what a voice.

[Dale Ludewig]

I just heard of her passing on NPR moments ago. I logged on to say so. What a voice and inspiration.

[JonZ]

She is also in the movie "Matewan", singing at a funeral.

[allenhopkins]

Parallel thread in the "Old-Time, Roots" etc. forum.

[tonyvt]

RIP Hazel.

[Mandoviol]

Dang...a friend of mine was doing her senior thesis work on/with Hazel....we'd heard that she had become ill recently, but this sort of comes out of left field....

The world has indeed lost a pioneer.

[Spencer]

Oh what a voice.

Yes, and what a song!!

Spencer

[swampstomper]

A nice obit in the NYT: here. Headline: "Hazel Dickens, Folk Singer, Dies at 75". Well, that's a proper description.

[barney 59]

Warren Hellman wanted to bring Hazel Dickens to San Francisco and Hazel insisted that she would only come if Blue Highway would also come. So it was -- Hazel Dickens and Blue Highway,---- then Emmy Lou caught wind of it and got involved somehow and Warren worried that since Emmy wasn't playing bluegrass at the time that maybe if they called it a "strictly" Bluegrass show that maybe she would only play bluegrass-- she didn't-- which spawned "Hardly"-- . So now it was becoming a bigger thing so they booked Alison Krauss 'cause maybe it was just after "Oh Brother" and it guaranteed attendance -- a couple of local acts to top it off. That first year lasted 6 hours. ... Hazel was largely, if indirectly, responsible for the existence of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass which might be the largest musical event in the U.S. possibly the world.

[Alex Orr]

Hazel was largely, if indirectly, responsible for the existence of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass which might be the largest musical event in the U.S. possibly the world.

I'm not sure it's that big in comparison to other music festivals. In the US, Bonnaroo attendance is usually between 90,000 and 100,000. In the UK, Glastonbury Fest (which I think is the world's largest annual concert festival) usually draws around 130,000 with "unofficial" attendance of an extra twenty to thirty thousand.

[journeybear]

Really. It's OK to say an event is great without claiming it is the biggest (easy to prove/disprove) or best (subject to subjectivity). Hype is the worst thing ever invented or yet to be invented.

[barney 59]

2010, 800,000! --fewest ticket sales.

[barney 59]

Didn't actually expect this to turn in a D*%# measuring contest over who's festival is biggest...Just a little story about Hazel----

[jesserules]

Hazel was largely, if indirectly, responsible for the existence of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass which might be the largest musical event in the U.S. possibly the world.

Barney59 didn't say "best" anywhere

also, please note the presence of the words "might be" and "possibly"

[allenhopkins]

Didn't actually expect this to turn in a D*%# measuring contest over who's festival is biggest...Just a little story about Hazel----

Amen! One of our most honored traditional musicians (National Heritage Fellowship, IBMA Song of the Year and Achievement Award, West Virginia Artist Hall of Fame, subject of a biographical study [Working Girl Blues, University of Illinois Press], etc.), and a woman who came from dire poverty and raised herself to prominence on the strength of her art and inspiration. Her 1966 duet album with Alice Gerrard, Who's That Knocking, (David Grisman on mandolin) was a important early step for women in bluegrass, and her participation in projects like the movie Matewan showed her strong social conscience as well as her ability to express her life experiences in song. Like Florence Reese, Aunt Molly Jackson or Mother Jones in the past, she unhesitatingly put herself out there to support the poor and working folks.

So let's talk about Hazel, not about how many tickets are sold for Bonnaroo or Glastonbury. Those of us who heard her -- often seeming to overcome her shyness in her efforts to get her songs out -- won't forget her.

[Alex Orr]

Didn't actually expect this to turn in a D*%# measuring contest over who's festival is biggest...Just a little story about Hazel----

I didn't mean it as a "D*%# measuring contest", I was honestly just curious as to the veracity of the claim. No aggression intended. I didn't know much about HBS and was always under the impression that Glastonbury is the largest because, well, they claim to be. It turns out that in terms of attendance, HSB actually is the world's largest music festival, which I think is both fascinating and quite cool. That being said, it's also free, which probably helps

[journeybear]

I have to admit I was taken aback by such a high attendance figure claim, which seemed off by an order of magnitude. But according to this article about the 2010 HSBF in the SF Gate (allowing for a modicum of hometown pride): "Police estimated more than 600,000 attended the festival over the three days, including 350,000 Sunday, the festival's traditional top attendance day. Between the high-caliber talent and breadth of musical styles drawn from inside and outside the acoustic music world, the festival has undoubtedly become the greatest outdoor music festival anywhere." 60 acts on 6 stages over 3 days for 0 dollars in Golden Gate Park, a large open area in an urban setting - these factors make this astounding attendance figure not only possible but practically inevitable. Some estimates do go up to 800,000.

I didn't know before this that Hazel Dickens had something to do with this festival's founding. That's an interesting story. She has always seemed the personification of the Appalachians, and imagining her in an urban setting to be rather incongruous. OF course, this festival is hardly strictly bluegrass.

[Ed Goist]

Here is a Terry Gross (NPR's Fresh Air) interview with Hazel Dickens which originally aired in 1987.

[Bing Cullen]

sorry to hear about Hazel. Gives us all hope. ...But where is it stated that this forum is about bluegrass? It is a mandoln forum..isn't it?

[journeybear]

Hardly strictly ...


But seriously, while it's no secret I'm all for conversational threads going where they will as long as the tangents are somehow relevant, I think in this case, where someone's life and work are being honored, it would be best to stick pretty close to the topic, out of respect.

[Paul Kotapish]

Hazel was definitely the original inspiration for the HSB festival. Warren Hellman--an old-time banjo player himself--has given a great gift to the city. It is awfully dang big, but the vibe is great and Hazel's spirit will continue to shine there in future.

Here's my favorite Hazel Dickens song. Alice Gerrard sings the lead, but it was one of Hazel's earliest songs, and it's been in regular rotation on my internal jukebox since the Folkways LP was released nearly 40 years ago. Mr. Grisman does a dandy job on the mandolin, too:

[JEStanek]

Paul, Thanks for that.

Jamie