West Virginia singer Mary Hott pays tribute to her state's labor union struggles

Jun. 15—Devil in the Hills: Coal Country Reckoning

Mary Hott With The Carpenter Ants. Harmonic Alliance.

On this album, released June 4, much of the empathy for today's working class can be heard in the voice of Mary Hott, a seventh-generation West Virginian.

Though focused on this summer's 100th anniversary of what's been known as the "Mine Wars," a largely forgotten series of clashes between West Virginia miners and management from 1912 to 1921, there are parallels to modern times.

With her beautiful and impassioned, Hott makes no apologies for her defense of workers, claiming the hills of West Virginia know stories the rest of the nation doesn't. The album has the feel of a Pete Seeger- or Woody Guthrie-like folk album in defense of labor.

The 11-track song disc features seven original songs and Hott's interpretations of the miner's march "Blair Mountain Ballad" and Southern gospel hymn "Life's Railroad to Heaven."

A revealing example of this collection's tone and texture is the final song, a heartfelt — slow and deliberate — reinvention of John Denver's bouncy pop hit, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

Imagine that as the finale of a protest album, not really maudlin but much more introspective and something with a gospel-like vibe in which the singer yearns for a better life, plus the dignity of respect for the working class.

This is a great piece of storytelling by a talented singer who cares for the treatment of men, women, and children, and is appalled by what happened in years past.

One song, "Annabelle Lee," uses a Celtic-style ballad to describe how families were so impoverished they rented their young daughters to coal company agents who sought "comfort girls" for company managers in remote coal camps. Another song makes reference to what happened when women were desperate to support their children and themselves after their husbands were injured or died in mines.

"Taking the words of the people and expressing their stories through music was a catharsis for me," Hott wrote. "Growing up here, we were never taught the real reasons behind the mine wars. Powerful forces wanted to keep it hidden. And it occurred to me, when people are forced to hide their trauma, it causes deep emotional damage that can be passed through generations. I consider it generational trauma that still exists today."

According to the National Park Service, the events culminated in late August, 1921, when thousands of pro-union miners from the town of Marmet, near Charleston, set out on a 60-mile march toward Mingo County in hopes of freeing striking workers who'd been jailed after the governor declared martial law.

A violent clash known as the Battle of Blair Mountain ensued as the anti-union sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin, used a citizen army to repel the workers.

"This confrontation between armed miners' and Chafin's unofficial army constituted the largest pitched battle in the history of the labor movement in the United States and became the largest insurrection on U.S. soil since the American Civil War," the park service states.

The battle ended after President Warren Harding called in the U.S. Army to suppress the uprising. Once the military intervened, the miners laid down their weapons and the fighting ended, the NPS said.

"I had to wonder," Hott added, "if we face what our ancestors endured, maybe we can overcome our own injustices, and make ourselves whole. I suppose that is my ultimate goal of making this album. Our history matters."