Working Girl Blues: The Life and Music of Hazel Dickens

Abstract

Working Girl Blues: The Life and Music of Hazel Dickens. By Hazel Dickens and Bill C. Malone. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Pp. ix + 102, acknowledgements, biography, songs and memories, discography, index, illustrations. $ 17.95 paper.)Working Girl Blues is a fine book that documents the connection between a bluegrass musician's life and her songs. Hazel Dickens is a songwriter and bluegrass musician whose work has been widely performed and recorded. Bill C. Malone is a scholar and musician with important books to his credit: Country Music USA and Don't Get Above your RaisinCountry Music and the Southern Working Class.The text of Working Girl Blues is divided into two major sections. The first thirty pages are devoted to Hazel's biography, written by Bill C. Malone. In the biographical section, readers learn about her West Virginia family, their poverty, and search for better economic opportunities, Hazel's loves, and the struggles of a female bluegrass musician in a field dominated by good old boys. The final fifty-five or so pages contain the lyrics of Hazel's compositions, with Hazel's commentary about each song. She tells of the inspirations for the songs, her artistic struggles, and, in general, the experiences the songs reflect. The lock between the two sections is effective. In her section, Dickens refers to themes of her life that Malone touches on, but fills out the narrative with additional information. She tells it in a way that seems close to her speaking voice, and it makes the writing come to life.Many books about bluegrass assume that an artist's song selections or compositions somehow reflect the artist's attitude or experience, or that it somehow represents a shared community aesthetic. In Working Girl Blues, the connection between lived experience and composition is one of the main thrusts of the book. For example, Malone's biography tells that Hazel was a sickly child who, at about the age of three months, would not drink milk. The Mercer County, WV, doctor pronounced he'd done all he could do to treat Hazel's problem. Hazel's mother, Sarah, was a shy woman who rarely left her home place. However, despite her shyness, Sarah carried Hazel to the nearest big place to see a baby doctor. There she received the help that pulled Hazel through. Readers eventually learn how this episode in Hazel's early life inspired two of her songs: "Mama's Hand" and "Carry Me Across the Mountain." Hazel comments on the special bond between herself and her mother, and the lyrics of these songs amply reinforce the point.Showing how new songs reflect life is important, because it demonstrates how a traditional songwriter combines a handed-down musical system with experience to create new work that fits a current scene. Working Girl Blues demonstrates that bluegrass is more than a collection of handed-down musical ideas that are assembled into pieces, but a vibrant musical form that artists shape to the circumstances of their lives.Working Girl Blues also addresses Appalachian migration for reasons relating to employment. …