Get all 26 Jeni Hankins releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of String Unraveller Demo May 2021, The American Dream (Harlis and Freda), Voice Memo Demo, I'm Letting Go of You – Kitchen Single, The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, A Body is a Delicate House, I Fell Into the Fire, The Loneliest Snowman, I Fell Into The Fire – Limited Edition Handprinted, and 18 more.
1. |
Miner's Reward
01:54
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Miner’s Reward
with respect for the witness of Nimrod Workman
and the work of Barbara Kopple
I ain’t seen the sun
in many long days.
Get up in the dark
and go home that-a-way.
‘Cept Sunday, thank God,
when my work is all done.
I wake in the morn
to the light of the sun.
My God, He is mighty,
as Exodus says.
My God, He is humble —
for me He chose death.
Though death will not spare me,
I’ll fear not the grave.
No mines up in Heaven,
just sunshine in spades.
No, I ain’t seen the sun
in many long days,
but I’ll see my reward
in Heaven some day.
Yes, I’ll see my reward
in Heaven some day.
© 2007 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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2. |
Tazewell Beauty Queen
03:19
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The Tazewell Beauty Queen
for Roy Lee
If you don’t mind the low seam,
and if you don’t mind the dark,
if you don’t mind the black face
that is every miner’s mark,
you can make a fortune
and you can buy a dream —
go cruisin’ in a Chevy
with the Tazewell Beauty Queen.
If you don’t mind the short fuse,
and if you don’t mind the smell,
if you don’t mind a summer
in a place as black as hell,
you can make a fortune
and you can buy a dream —
go cruisin’ in a Chevy
with the Tazewell Beauty Queen.
If you will make a gamble,
if you will bet your skin,
you can get your wish in
tires and chrome and fins.
You can make a fortune
and you can buy a dream —
go cruisin’ in a Chevy
with the Tazewell Beauty Queen.
If you will make a gamble,
if you will bet your skin,
you can get your wish in
tires and chrome and fins.
You can make a fortune
and you can buy a dream —
go cruisin’ in a Chevy
with the Tazewell Beauty Queen.
You might be dusty now,
but you’ll be coming up so clean —
just a’drivin’ in that Chevy
with your Tazewell Beauty Queen.
© 2007 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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3. |
Local 6167
05:38
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Local 6167
Well I’ll go down to Coaldan and I’ll lay on the tracks
and I’ll listen to the rails that stopped talking back.
Or I’ll go down to Richlands to a Blue Tornados game
and I’ll look for the old-timers and ask them their names.
Did you know Hankins in the UMWA?
Were you there when Meadows got his black lung pay?
There used to be a train that hauled this coal away
back when John L. Lewis paved the miner’s way.
Now there’s just a strike shack fallen to disrepair
and if you go down to the coalfields, well there ain’t no miners there.
I’ll go across to Smith Ridge to the Friendly Chapel Church
and I’ll ask the good women there to help me keep my shirt.
They’re bound to have some dinner there or a pack of cigarettes.
I’ll take their religion if that is all I can get.
They tell me that Jesus is for the UMWA
and it don’t mean nothing what the politicians say.
There used to be a train that hauled this coal away
back when John L. Lewis paved the miner’s way.
Now there’s just a strike shack fallen to disrepair
and if you go down to the coalfields, well there ain’t no miners there.
John Lewis called the mines a blood and bones machine
that grinds up the miner for the American Dream.
Now the Company’s got machines that’ll mine for the coal
and they don’t need us miners to go down in that hole.
Well God bless Jewell Ridge and the UMWA
and God bless the miner who has seen his day.
There used to be a train that hauled this coal away
back when John L. Lewis paved the miner’s way.
Now there’s just a strike shack fallen to disrepair
and if you go down to the coalfields, well there ain’t no miners there.
© 2004 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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4. |
Oxycodone
03:23
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Oxycodone
thanks to Nick Miroff
for Jeff Trapp & Jeff Vandyke
As I tip up my white paper cup,
I think on what Daddy once said,
“If you go along, to get along,
Son, you’d be better off dead.”
But the methadone seeps in my bones
and Daddy, he loses his hold.
A twelve dollar fix, the methadone clicks,
and, then, it’s down to the coal.
Down in the cave, ain’t nobody saved
from fear it’ll be their last time.
Daddy once said, “Son, keep your head,
‘cause life, it can turn on a dime.
Son, just look at mine.”
A mobile home, disconnected phone,
a fortune shot up my veins.
It’s three a.m., to the clinic again,
the county says “its a shame.”
Oxycodone has wrecked my home
and I ain’t seen Daddy for years.
Our last goodbye, I was high
and Daddy was fightin’ back tears.
Down in the cave, ain’t nobody saved
from fear it’ll be their last time.
Daddy once said, “Son, keep your head,
‘cause life, it can turn on a dime.
Son, just look at mine.”
Daddy once said, “Son, keep your head,
‘cause life, it can turn on a dime.
Son, just look at mine.”
© 2008 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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5. |
Jewell Ridge Coal
02:54
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Jewell Ridge Coal
For Narcie
Daddy had something he could never hold
and he’d lost it down in that Jewell Ridge coal.
Mama said, “Daddy, can’t you let it go?”
But he kept on digging that Jewell Ridge coal.
Our reward’s in Heaven, it sure ain’t below.
No, there ain’t no diamonds in that Jewell Ridge coal.
Sister wanted someone to have and to hold.
So, she married right into that Jewell Ridge coal.
Mama said, “Baby, can’t you let him go?”
But she wrapped her arms around that Jewell Ridge coal.
Our reward’s in Heaven, it sure ain’t below.
No, there ain’t no diamonds in that Jewell Ridge coal.
Well we all want something we can never hold.
And we keep on digging like to save our soul.
But there ain’t no light in a pitch black hole.
No, nothing’s shining down in that coal.
Mama loved something she could never hold.
Ashes and dust ‘neath that Jewell Ridge coal.
Mama said, “Lordy, I just can’t let go,
since we lost Daddy to that Jewell Ridge coal.”
Our reward’s in Heaven it sure ain’t below.
No, there ain’t no diamonds in that Jewell Ridge coal.
© 2004 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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6. |
Sweetness Keen As Pain
02:58
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Sweetness Keen as Pain
for Edith
She kissed me down at the county fair
and I paid her a dollar just to kiss me again.
I heard she saves all her money for fancy clothes
to catch the eye of wealthy men.
And I can’t get enough of that Jewell Ridge Girl.
Over my heart she reigns.
From that coal black jewel all the sweetness I knew
was a sweetness as keen as pain.
I told her that I was a medical man,
but I don’t know nothing but the coal.
When her sister told her, she got so mad
the fire in her eyes was a sight to behold.
And I can’t get enough of that Jewell Ridge Girl.
Over my heart she reigns.
From that coal black jewel all the sweetness I knew
was a sweetness as keen as pain.
I heard she’s a-working at the company store.
She swore she’d kill me if I came round her place.
But she gives me a pain right down in my soul
and I’m willin’ to die just to see her face.
And I can’t get enough of that Jewell Ridge Girl.
Over my heart she reigns.
From that coal black jewel all the sweetness I knew
was a sweetness as keen as pain.
© 2005 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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7. |
Middle Creek
04:43
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Middle Creek
for Marcella
Grandpa Babe died while he was shaving.
Took ‘em three days before they found him out
in the cabin where he lived up on Middle Creek
where the flies swarmed around his mouth.
The day he died was twenty years since the fire
that took Mildred, Vicey, and little James,
and Brenda, and Franklin there beside them.
They say, since then he weren’t the same.
And it’s hot, yes, it’s hot up on Middle Creek,
where peace comes slow to the wicked.
And it’s cool, yes, it’s cool under the cedar trees,
where the branches brush the grave
of Grandpa Babe.
He grew corn to make his moonshine.
Mildred kept a garden out back of the house.
He sold timber off the land and did some trading.
He and Mildred held the place somehow.
The Old Regulars, they spoke of retribution
at the little church to which he never came.
And they prayed,
yes they prayed for his salvation —
that he’d burn his still house down
and praise Jesus’ name.
And it’s hot, yes, it’s hot up on Middle Creek,
where peace comes slow to the wicked.
And it’s cool, yes, it’s cool under the cedar trees,
where the branches brush the grave
of Grandpa Babe.
Some folks called him good for nothing.
Some say he was just broke.
But on that last day with his hand on the razor,
I wonder did he smell smoke?
I wonder did he call to Heaven?
Did Mildred hear her name?
And when his heart seized up on him,
did he see Mildred and the children,
in Jesus’ name, through the flames?
And it’s hot, yes, it’s hot up on Middle Creek,
where peace comes slow to the wicked.
And it’s cool, yes, it’s cool under the cedar trees,
where the branches brush the grave
of Grandpa Babe.
© 2003 Jeni Hankins, 2007 Billy Kemp, BMI
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8. |
Chicken Ridge
03:07
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Chicken Ridge
for Mister Kyle
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge —
don’t you wanna go?
If you’ve a notion
we could do-si-do.
Curves on Chicken Ridge,
kissin’ back to back,
make a crooked road
and there ain’t no turnin’ back.
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Don’t you wanna go?
There ain’t no shoulders,
ain’t no lines,
just a little mule road
cut between the mines.
Houses up on Chicken Ridge,
lonesome and squat,
left by the miners
the company forgot.
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Don’t you wanna go?
The top of the world
is closer than you know.
Take my hand, we’ll
catch a cloud and go.
Up that windy road
we’ll spin from ear to ear
and find ourselves
in that high atmosphere.
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Goin’ up Chicken Ridge
Don’t you wanna go?
© 2007 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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9. |
Land of the Pharaohs
05:10
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Land of the Pharaohs
to Hazel Dickens, for paving the way
In the land of the Pharaohs
the coal boss is king
and he wagers the sun’s but a trifling thing.
In his dreams he reckons he’ll mine it someday
and harness the power of the whole Milky Way.
Go down Moses, down to Pharaoh’s land, and
preach your gospel, the Judgement’s at hand.
Though the good times are past,
though the boss does his worst,
when we all get to Heaven the last shall be first.
In the land of the Pharaohs
a miner ain’t but a slave
who risks life and limb for a poor beggar’s wage.
And if he complains or brings the Union around,
the thugs and the Pinkertons
beat him back down.
Go down John L., down to Pharaoh’s land
and shout your gospel, the Judgement’s at hand.
Though the good times are past,
though the boss does his worst,
when we all get to Heaven the last shall be first.
Well, the land of the Pharaohs
is a rich man’s dream
filled with Carnegie steel and Ford’s factories
and the B & Q mine where a man is so small
that the world don’t notice
when black lung comes to call.
Go down Woody, down to Pharaoh’s land
and sing your gospel, the Judgement’s at hand.
Though the good times are past,
though the boss does his worst,
when we all get to Heaven the last shall be first.
© 2005 Jeni Hankins, BMI
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10. |
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Ain't Got Time for Trouble Blues
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you this morn.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you this morn.
You better move on down the line.
To the twenty-inch coal I’m sworn.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you today.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you today.
You better move on down the line.
Gotta work to make my pay.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you tonight.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you tonight.
You better move on down the line.
Gotta squeeze my honey tight.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you no more.
Trouble, Oh trouble,
Ain’t got time for you no more.
If you don’t move on down the line,
Gonna throw you out my door.
© 2007 Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp, BMI
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Jeni Hankins London, UK
Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and
journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.
In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.”
... more
Jeni Hankins recommends:
For me, this is the best of folk music, what it's all meant to be. After years of listening to Rebecca & Ken, I still get shivers up my spine when I hear them together.
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