Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens
Background information
Born	June 1, 1925 Mercer County, West Virginia, U.S.
Died	April 22, 2011(2011-04-22) (aged 85) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Genres	Bluegrass, folk music
Instrument(s)	Vocals, double bass, guitar
Labels	Rounder, Folkways
Resting place	Roselawn Memorial Gardens, Princeton, West Virginia

Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1925^[a] – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music." With Alice Gerrard, Dickens was one of the first women to record a bluegrass album. She was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame alongside Gerrard in 2017.^[1]