Various Artists - Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner's Struggle

Harlan County USA was a 1976 US documentary by Barbara Kopple.

Coal mining is one of the few industries to inspire powerful folk music and almost a third of these 22 tracks feature activist Hazel Dickens, who contributed to the soundtrack of the documentary as the 'musical conscience'.

Harlan County USA is not a 'light' album, and coal-mining is not a 'light' subject. It is real-life stories of trapped miners, unions, management, injuries, fatalities, the closing of mines and lost jobs.

On Harlan County USA Merle Travis sings Dark As A Dungeon, one of the classic coal-mining songs. 

• Coal Tattoo - Hazel Dickens
• Shut Up In The Mines Of Coal Creek - Old Home String Band
• Come All You Coal Miners - Sarah Ogan Gunnning
• Blue Diamond Mines - Johnson Mountain Boys
• The Yablonski Murder - Hazel Dickens
• Last Train From Poor Valley - Norman Blake
• Black Lung - Hazel Dickens
• Dark As A Dungeon - Merle Travis
• Trouble Among The Yearlings - Country Cooking
• Lawrence Jones - Phillis Boyes
• Coal Black Mining Blues - Minrod Workman
• Coal Miner's Grave - Hazel Dickens
• The Death Of Harry Sims - Jim Garland
• Mannington Mine Disaster - Hazel Dickens
• Cruel Willie - Connie & Babe
• Hard Working Miner - Sarah Ogan Gunning
• Dream Of A Miner's Child - Phyllis Boyens
• And Am I Born To Die - Doc Watson
• Clay County Miner - Hazel Dickens
• One Morning In May - J.P. Fraley