Songwriters & Music Lovers:
Here’s a live solo for a show at the Armadillo Day Fest in Reading, Pa.
“Coal Tattoo” was written by Billy Edd Wheeler, an American songwriter, artist,
and writer, born in 1932 in W. Va. Other songs include "The Reverend Mr. Black",
"Desert Pete", "Ann", "High Flyin' Bird", "The Coming of the Roads", "It’s Midnight",
"Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Winter Sky", and "Coward of the County"
(which inspired a 1981 television movie of the same name). Wheeler has written 8
plays & musicals, a folk opera, and 3 outdoor dramas. He has authored 6 books of
humor, 2 novels, a book of poetry, and many paintings.
“Coal Tattoo” has been covered by Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin,
The Kingston Trio, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, Florence and the
Machine, Kathy Mattea, Nancy Sinatra, Elvis Presley and others.
A mining “tattoo” occurs when a miner takes improper cover before an underground
blast, imbedding his skin with debris: hence, a “coal tattoo”.
I sing coal songs because my “Pappy” preached the Gospel to miners in the
Anthracite “Coal Regions” in Eastern Pa. Both my Dad and uncle drove coal trucks,
my Dad up a steep grade from the mine itself, and Uncle Paul would haul to Phila.
homes. Anthracite is called “hard coal” (rather than “soft coal” everywhere else), and
is the champagne of coal: it burns even, leaves little ash, and carries lots of BTUs.
It is found only in Wales and the Coal Regions of Pennsylvania.
My cousin Elaine was killed by a truck delivering coal. Back then, coal trucks were
delivering everywhere, the trucks blocking the street. As a nation, after WWII, oil
was just coming of age.
To listen, click: http://rattlesnakehill.org/Web_Music/edsmusic.html
Ed
(As always, turn up and headphones preferred)
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