Hazel Dickens’s compelling voice and eloquent songs first reached a large American public in the soundtrack ofHarlan County, USA,a 1976 Academy Award–winning documentary film that told of a protracted and dramatic strike in the eastern Kentucky coalfields. During a graphic description of the ravages wrought by pneumoconiosis midway through the documentary, Hazel is heard singing her own composition, “Black Lung,” a powerful elegy inspired by the death of her brother Thurman and other coal miners. Her voice—stark, keening, and persuasive—manages to convey both the suffering felt by generations of her kinsmen and her own outrage...

People took to this song like no other that I’ve ever sung. Of course in bluegrass you hear a lot of songs about mother. I’ve gotten more responses, more nice sentiments about this song than any other song. Lynn Morris, whose version won the IBMA’s Song of the Year award in 1996, says the same thing. For some reason, almost every time I sing it, I can see people in the audience with tears in their eyes.

There was a very special bond between me and my mother. When I was three months old, I developed this condition where I...