Indiana bluegrass singer and songwriter Carl Bentley and his talented band have a new single on offer, a true story about a mine explosion 43 years ago in Carl’s native eastern Kentucky.
Carl says that accidents of any kind affect him deeply, as he was seriously injured himself in an auto crash in 1996 which required a full six months of recovery and rehab.
Just so with the one that inspired this song, Floyd County Mines.
“On January 20, 1982, at approximately 9:40 a.m., a coal dust explosion occurred in the 001 section of RFH Coal Company’s No. 1 Mine, located at Mink Branch near Craynor, in Floyd County, Kentucky. All seven miners working underground at the time of the explosion were killed. I wrote this song in tribute to all miners who have perished underground.”
This song, the first from his next album, New Brand of Misery, was recorded with Carl on guitar and lead vocal, Josh Coffey on banjo, Jon Crouch on mandolin, and Caleb Garnett on bass. Josh and Caleb sing harmony, with fiddle provided by engineer and co-producer Ron Stewart.
As you might imagine, it’s something of a somber song, which Carl sings with the appropriate level of melancholy. It’s plenty lonesome.
Check it out…
Floyd County Mines is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
