They interviewed the surviving West Virginia miners, along with the families of the miners who died, and created monologues for their characters using those words. Earle describes Blank and Jensen as creating “documentary theater,” and they received a commission from the Public Theater in New York. Earle had previously worked with them on The Exonerated, an Off-Broadway play about wrongfully imprisoned people who ultimately proved their innocence and got released. That is the entire point of Ghosts of West Virginia.Įarle started working on the album after being approached by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, a playwright team that would eventually create Coal Country, a theater piece about the Upper Big Branch disaster. You can’t begin communicating with people unless you understand the texture of their lives, the realities that provide significance to their days. “But that doesn’t mean a thing in West Virginia,” he says. He believes in sustainable energy sources and ending fossil fuels. To be sure, Earle’s politics have not changed. “You can’t just tell these people that you’re going to shut the coal mines without also telling them what you’re going to do to take care of them, to protect their lives,” Earle explains.
As sons followed their fathers and older brothers into the mines, generational bonds were forged. More than merely a question of jobs and income, mining has provided a sense of unity and meaning, patriotic pride and purpose. In ten deftly drawn, roughly eloquent, powerfully conveyed sonic portraits, Earle and his long-time band the Dukes explore the historical role of coal in rural communities. The mine’s owners agreed to pay more than $200 million in criminal liabilities, and shut the mine down. Investigations revealed hundreds of safety violations, as well as attempts to cover them up. Ghosts of West Virginia centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.” So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. “One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everybody who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we’re fucked, because it’s simply not true. “I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did,” he says. But he came to believe that our times might also benefit from something that addresses a different audience, songs written from a point of view that he is particularly capable of rendering. As anyone as politically attuned as Earle understands, there are times when the faithful need music that will raise their spirits and toughen their resolve. “I’ve already made the preaching-to-the-choir album,” he says, specifically alluding to his 2004 album, The Revolution Starts Now. Start here with ‘Mercenary Song’ – timeless music of the highest quality.When asked about what drove him to craft his deeply evocative new album, Ghosts of West Virginia, Steve Earle says that he was interested in exploring a new approach to his songwriting. Burns is a rising star and ‘Hurricane’ is definitely worth checking out if you missed it. The EP debuted in the Top Ten of the Billboard Bluegrass Chart and topped Amazon’s Contemporary Folk New Releases Chart on its release. He captures the duo’s camaraderie and the intimate atmosphere of the bar we can imagine seeing these fabulous players at a folk-night in the back-room of a pub. For ‘Mercenary Song’, Wright filmed the pair singing and playing in The Dead Rabbit, once voted the best bar in the world. The video was directed by Jim Wright, who has worked with the likes of Dierks Bentley and Darius Rucker.
It’s a brilliant blend of Americana and Danny Burns’ Irish folk roots. ‘Mercenary Song’ is a tuneful number and both Burns and Earle are in fine voice, complementing one another well as their vocals dance above Byron House’s rhythmic bass and delightful accordion from Mike Guerra (Mavericks). For ‘Mercenary Song’, Burns was joined by the legendary GRAMMY-winner Steve Earle, who plays bouzouki as well as guitar on the song. It’s taken from his 2021 EP ‘Hurricane’ which featured a host of outstanding artists, including Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Sarah Jarosz. Here is a brilliant, upbeat, foot-tapping song from Danny Burns.
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