Born and raised in Rural West Virginia, Dickens took an early interest in music and often played with members of her family around the home place. As economic times grew hard members of the family began to move to nearby Baltimore in search of more stable ways of making a living – Stable as in a steady income and stable as in a job that wouldn’t claim their life in the ways that coal mining had done that of many of their friends.
In the first half of Working Girl Blues country music historian Bill C. Malone, author of the definitive history of country music Country Music, USA, provides us with a biography of Dickens that illuminates where this pioneering woman of bluegrass came from and the influences on her music.
While dealing with the common bluegrass themes of home, mother and love, Dickens took a particular interest in bringing the plight of the coal miners to all that would hear. A dangerous job, coal miners were, and are still, overlooked by most of the population, including the wealthy bosses who own the mines.
In 1976 Dickens’ music, including a song written especially for the film, was featured in the documentary Harlan County, USA, a film that focused on a group of striking miners in 1973. The film won an Academy award and Dickens played several concerts in support of the film and its message that raised her profile among both music fans and advocacy groups.
The bulk of this book is devoted to the lyrics of Dickens’ songs. The songs presented here are accompanied by memories of the time they were written and what influenced or inspired them.
The book serves as an excellent introduction to the life and music of Dickens with Malone’s thorough, though brief, biography serving as a fantastic set-up to the stories Dickens provides about her songs. Although, due to the autobiographical nature of the book, there is no discussion on the impact Dickens had on bluegrass music (although it is briefly mentioned by Malone), it is evident in the reading of her life and in her lyrics.