Nimrod Workman & Phyllis Boyens - Passing Thru The Garden (JA-001)
- Description
-
Nimrod Workman was born in Inez, Martin County, Kentucky. At the age of 14 he went to work in the Howard Collieries coal mines in Mingo County WV, and he continued working as a coal miner for forty-two years until he was forced to retire due to black lung and a slipped disc. Throughout his coal mining career he was active in union politics and United Mine Workers of America organizing. In 1920-1921 he worked alongside Mary Harris "Mother" Jones in West Virginia, and participated in the Battle of Blair Mountain uprising. Following his retirement as a miner he became known as a folk singer, with frequent performances around Appalachia as well as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the 1982 World's Fair. In 1986 he was a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the subject of a documentary Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category, produced by Appalshop Films, and appeared as himself in the documentaries Harlan County, USA, Chase the Devil: Religious Music of the Appalachians, and The Grand Generation. He is heard leading the singing of "Amazing Grace" in the funeral scene in Coal Miner's Daughter, which also featured his daughter Phyllis Boyens as Loretta Lynn's mother. He spent most of his life in Chattaroy, West Virginia, though in later years he lived in Mascot, Tennessee. He died in Knoxville, Tennessee at the age of 99.
Phyllis Boyens-Liptak was born February 22, 1947 in Lobata, West Virginia to Molly and Nimrod Workman. She was one of 13 children. She appeared in the Jane Fonda/Dolly Parton TV movie of the great Harriett Simpson Arnow novel, The Dollmaker. She released one solo album, "I Really Care," for Rounder in 1983. She sang "Oh, Death" with Nimrod in the Academy Award winning documentary Harlan County, USA. Phyllis Boyens-Liptak died December 9, 2009 of cancer.
Recordings for JA001, Passing Thru The Garden, were engineered by Gary Slemp. The release was produced by Jack Wright.
This audio collection consists of original ¼-inch field recordings, ¼-inch production masters, ¼-inch preservation masters, vinyl production masters, preservation DVD-R and CD-R access copies, and LTO-3 data tape.
- Links
- Full Release on Bandcamp