This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #103 (December 2002 / January 2003). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

VIDEO REVIEWS

Hazel Dickens
It's Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song
Appalshop (2002); 60 min.; $24.95

Hazel Dickens is a D.C. punk. I doubt that she has any tattoos, and you won't see her smashing any drum sets. But when it comes to fighting the establishment, speaking her mind, eschewing frills, and caring more about content than style, she's truly hardcore.

In fact, the word "hard" comes up a lot in Mimi Pickering's documentary on Dickens' life. Dickens, in her late 60s, represents a culture, and particularly a generation of that culture, which had to struggle for everything. It's an Appalachia where none of her parents' 11 children finished high school; her brother died, after a lifetime of mining work, without leaving enough money for a burial; and her mother looked to her children to live the dreams she couldn't realize. A hard life.

And Dickens' music is described as "hard" by Alison Krauss, among several admirers (Naomi Judd, Laurie Lewis) interviewed for the film. Her sound came from a childhood playing with her family for their own entertainment, singing in church, and listening to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night. When Mike Seeger met her in the 50s, the two became part of a growing musical community that celebrated that blend of influences and began to write songs in the style. The shy Dickens found that she had not only a voice, but also an opinion. She sang about exploited women ("Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There"), about leaving the country for the city ("Mama's Hand"), and, most famously, about working people and their exploitation by a big man in a big house who's given up caring. Her song on her brother's death, "Black Lung," laments, "He's lived a hard life, and now he'll die."

Dickens, striking and sharp-featured (even the planes of her face are hard), is the closest thing this film has to a narrator. She takes us to the places of her youth, as well as her current home in Washington, D.C., and a family gathering back in West Virginia. We see her in archival footage, much of it shot at festivals, where the mesmerized audiences are shown to good effect. Pickering seems more interested in Dickens' politics than in her musicianship. But because Dickens puts herself so deeply into her music, it's impossible — or at least hard — to separate the two.

— Pamela Murray Winters
(Arlington, VA)

The Ins and Outs of Rhythm Harp
taught by Peter Madcat Ruth
Homespun VD-RTH-HA02 (2001); 60 min; $29.95

Building on the idea of connecting harmonica notes to spoken syllables, Peter Madcat Ruth offers an upbeat lesson that should be useful to beginning as well as advanced harp players. Since this is a tape focusing on rhythm rather than lead, Ruth emphasizes percussion and beat, starting with basic concepts and then adding more challenging possibilities. With a background that includes studying with Chicago blues great Walter Horton and touring with jazz master Dave Brubeck, Ruth proves a genial and accomplished instructor with a sense of humor. To see that in action, be sure to watch the video all the way through the credit roll.

— Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL)