You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive – Brad Paisley
Kentucky is a difficult one. For one thing, it’s one of the few cases where the official state song is in serious contention. “My Old Kentucky Home” is a beautiful song, maybe the finest written by Stephen Foster, one of the great American songwriters of the 19th century. And, something I didn’t realize until I researched it for this post, it was originally composed as an anti-slavery ballad (inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and endorsed by Frederick Douglass!). There are many lovely versions of the song, but my favorite is this one, performed beautifully by John Prine.
But I’m not going with that one. And neither am I going with that other great John Prine song, “Paradise.” I’m walking by Emmylou’s “Blue Kentucky Girl,” and I’m also passing on “Kentucky Rain,” one of my favorite late-career Elvis songs. And speaking of Elvis, I’m also not taking “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” one of his very first songs (also sung beautifully by Patsy Cline and, particularly, Ray Charles among others).
Rather than any of those, I’m instead going with “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” a haunting and beautiful song about the weight of generations, who founded a place for themselves in the hills of Harlan County, who have lived there for years untold, who have suffered under the weight of poverty, of industry that came and then departed again. A region of striking workers and bitter fights, of racial mixing and racial violence, of beautiful hills and black lungs.
I’m not the biggest Brad Paisley fan in the world, but holy hell does he do a good job with this one. And if it’s more your style, there’s also a great Patty Loveless version.