Black Waters 

Jean Ritchie's "Black Waters"
performed by John McCutcheon, Tim O'Brien, Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea, Stuart Duncan and Bryn Davies
℗ by John McCutcheon
from Dear Jean - Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie, on Compass Records (DearJeanCD.org)
"Black Waters" © by Jean Ritchie, Geordie Music Publishing
The album Dear Jean - Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie is a two CD, 37 track set featuring performances from a broad diversity of well established and emerging musicians who have come together to honor the iconic Kentucky folk musician and songwriter many refer to as "the mother of folk music." The artists dedicated their efforts not only to their love and gratitude for Jean Ritchie, who has been an inspiration and mentor to generations, but also to the preservation of the mountains from which her music has sprung.
The surface mining practice called "mountaintop removal" is exactly as it sounds - coal companies blast the tops off mountains and dump the rock and dirt into valleys, burying headwaters and poisoning streams for miles. The artists who have come together to make Dear Jean support the End Mountaintop Removal Campaign of Appalachian Voices, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping give voice to the people of the region to pressure the White House, Congress, state lawmakers and other decision makers to end mountaintop removal, now.
Perhaps no figure has expressed better than Jean Ritchie the connection between mountaintop removal and the destruction of entire communities and ways of life. As Wendell Berry wrote in the liner notes for Dear Jean, "The history of Kentucky so far is tragic exactly because of our failure to recognize and cherish and protect the precious exchanges by which the life of a given place and the human life given back may be made one life, enduring and sustaining. The paramount voice of that tragedy, and of the goodness and beauty of what we have lost, is Jean Ritchie’s-and by her gift it is ours, to help us to remember and to hope."
You can learn more about Appalachian Voices and add your support to the campaign by visiting AppalachianVoic... or ilovemountains.org. To learn more about The Dear Jean CD, visit DearJeanCD.org.
The photographs in this video come courtesy of Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Rhonda Harper, Silas House, Kent Kessinger, Jean Ritchie, Dan Schatz, Chad Stevens, Vivian Stockman and Matt Wasson. Many were sourced through the ilovemountains.org photostream, with generous permission and help from the Appalachian Voices staff.
Special thanks also to Jamie Goodman, Mick Lane, John McCutcheon, Cat McCue, Jon and Peter Pickow, Charlie Pilzer, Kayti Wingfield, Compass Records and the American Folklife Center. And thanks especially to Jean Ritchie, for the unending gifts of your wisdom and music.
Video produced by Dan Schatz
© 2014 Jean Ritchie CD Project Trust