Hazel Jane Dickens Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1935 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "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." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music." With Alice Gerrard, Dickens was one of the first women to record a bluegrass album.
On her song, "Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Here There:" I can remember the first time I sang 'Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Here There.' I was at a party standing in the middle of all these men. It was here in Washington. Bob Siggins was playing banjo, and when I got done, everybody just looked at each other, and Bob said 'That's a nice song, but I won't be able to sing it.' And I said 'Of course you can. We were writing about our own experience. They were things needed to say.
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On her collaboration with Alice Gerrard: I'm not sure if they looked at us as a novelty, or if they took us seriously. They were a lot of them, especially down through the years, that gave us respect.
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Fact
1
She was one of eleven children in Mercer County, West Virginia. Daughter of a Primitive Baptist preacher and singer who hauled timber to support the family. Her brothers were miners and one of her sisters cleaned the house for the mine supervisor.
2
She moved to Baltimore, Maryland in the 1950s and worked in factories there. She began playing music and singing with Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard.
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She was the first woman awarded the International Bluegrass Music Association's Merit Award in 1994.
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Winner of a 2001 NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) National Heritage Fellowship Award.
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Traditional Appalachian singer-songwriter.
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Songcatcher
2000
performer: "Conversation with Death"
The Journey of August King
1995
performer: "Pretty Bird" / writer: "Pretty Bird"
Beats of the Heart: Chase the Devil - Religious Music of the Appalachian Mountains
1983
TV Movie documentary performer: "Mother Hold Up My Dying Head", "Clay County Miner" / writer: "Clay County Miner"
Harlan County U.S.A.
1976
Documentary performer: "Black Lung", "Cold Blooded Murder", "They Can Never Keep Us Down" / writer: "Mannington", "Black Lung", "Cold Blooded Murder", "They Can Never Keep Us Down"
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Songcatcher
2000
Singer at Barn Dance
Matewan
1987
Singer
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song
2002
Documentary
Herself
Beats of the Heart: Chase the Devil - Religious Music of the Appalachian Mountains
1983
TV Movie documentary
Herself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards
2012
TV Special
Herself - In Memoriam
Known for movies
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) as Soundtrack
Songcatcher (2000) as Singer at Barn Dance
The Journey of August King (1995) as Soundtrack
Beats of the Heart: Chase the Devil - Religious Music of the Appalachian Mountains (1983) as Herself
$1.6 Million
