The 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia was the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in nearly 50 years — killing 29 miners. A new play called 'Coal Country' tells the story of what happened.
Seven songs from that record are featured in the play.Working onSeven songs from that record are featured in the play.Just about a decade ago — April 5, 2010 at about 3:30 in the afternoon — an explosion fueled by methane and coal dust ripped through the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and killed 29 miners.
"He had been in the mines 30, I believe, 32, 33 years, and he was retiring. May 13 of this year [2010] was going to be his last day," McKinney said."They had a cruise already paid for in May. He loved to travel and he loved his grandbabies; he loved us." "A song is a pretty unique, effective way of saying things that are hard, because the music sort of helps you assimilate it in a way that almost nothing else does," Earle says., and he joined the playwrights on their first interview trip when they decided to go to West Virginia. He thought working on the play would help him write his next album. Earle says he wanted to make"a political record that spoke to people who didn't vote the way that I did.", and is out May 22.
"The first thing [the interviewees] said to Jessica and Erik was, 'Those people' — talking about a theater audience in New York — 'are gonna think we're stupid,'"he says."And they're not. They're just in West Virginia. And the thing I'm proudest of is I'm watching these audiences empathize with these people that otherwise I don't think they would ever be able to relate to.
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