We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek

from Gone Boy by Brett Ratliff

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Gone Boy Vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Gone Boy via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

about

This is another song I learned from Kentucky banjo player and historian, George Gibson. “Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek” refers to the Fraterville Mine, operated by the Coal Creek Coal Company, which exploded on May 19, 1902, resulting in the deaths of 216 miners in Anderson County, TN. The story of this disaster has been passed around the mountains for more than a hundred years. When I was young, I knew coal miners who carried in their lunch buckets photocopies of the letters the Fraterville miners wrote to their families—a stark reminder of what can happen.

credits

from Gone Boy, released November 1, 2017

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Brett Ratliff Fayetteville, Arkansas

Brett Ratliff is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts. Ratliff teaches and performs traditional Appalachian musical styles and repertoire both at home and abroad, and has contributed to more than a dozen recordings, including for Smithsonian Folkways, June Appal Recordings, The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, Old Town School of Folk Music, and The Oxford American. ... more

contact / help

Contact Brett Ratliff

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Brett Ratliff, you may also like: