Weekend Music

My friend Robert sent these to me a few days ago, and it was not until last night that I had a chance to listen to them. So, though it may seem perverse to label as "weekend music" a song as gloomy as this one, and more so to include two versions of it, it is now the weekend, and it's a great song. I'm including both because I couldn't make up my mind which I preferred. The first is live, the second from the album (Patty Loveless, Mountain Soul). Musically, I like the live version better. But the video on the second one is a nice photo essay. "Harlan" as you probably know is Harlan County, Kentucky, a coal-mining area that was the scene of bitter and violent labor conflicts that earned it the name "Bloody Harlan." Reading about it will remind you why unions exist. 

I wonder about the origin of the somewhat unfortunate name "Loveless." I suppose it was originally the old English name "Lovelace," spelled phonetically as it was passed down through generations with little schooling.