Appalachian Figures
A coal miner, ballad singer, and union man from Martin County
Eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia produced thousands of coal miners. Very few left as much of their own voice behind as Nimrod Workman. Born in Martin County in 1895, he spent more than four decades in the mines of Mingo County, West Virginia, before black lung and a damaged back forced him to quit underground work. In retirement he carried the stories he had lived into songs, interviews, and films that now sit in archives from Whitesburg to Washington.
National institutions eventually caught up to the life he had already sung about. The National Endowment for the Arts named him a National Heritage Fellow in 1986, honoring him as an Appalachian ballad singer who had turned coal camp experience into music. In 2025 the Library of Congress added the Appalshop based Nimrod Workman Collection to the National Recording Registry, recognizing his recordings as part of the permanent sound memory of the United States.
From Martin County to Mingo County
Workman was born on November 5, 1895, near Inez in Martin County, Kentucky, into a farming family in the Tug River country. He was named for his grandfather, also called Nimrod, who taught him old British ballads about lords, ladies, and the Scottish wars. Family members remembered that both his grandfather and his mother sang, and his sister Laura played banjo and guitar. In later interviews he summed it up by saying that his “race of people” seemed to have music in them from the start.
Like many mountain families, the Workmans combined subsistence farming with whatever wage work they could find. When Nimrod was fourteen, his parents signed a minor’s release so he could go into the coal mines. He left Kentucky for the Howard Collieries operations in Mingo County, West Virginia, part of a wider stream of Martin County people who moved across the Tug River into coal camps near Chattaroy.
Mining became the backbone of his adult life. Institutional biographies and reissue notes agree that he spent roughly forty to forty two years in the mines, beginning as a hand loader and moving through successive generations of underground technology. He later said that he had “worked many 10 hours for 50 cents,” a reminder of the low wages and long shifts that defined early twentieth century coal work.
In 1929 he married Mollie Bowens, of partial Italian descent, and together they raised thirteen children, two of whom died young. In one of the statements preserved for his National Heritage Fellowship, Workman said simply that he “raised [his] children by the hardest in the mines” and that there had been no other way to keep a large family fed. Most of his working years were spent in and around Chattaroy, making him both a Martin County Kentuckian and a Mingo County West Virginian.
Forty two years in the mines
The mines where Workman labored were part of the classic southern West Virginia coalfield. Hand loading and early mechanization meant men worked in low seams, often in water, breathing dust that would scar their lungs. NEA interview material and later reissue notes emphasize that he retired in the early 1950s with both black lung and a slipped disc.
His working life was also a union life. Biographical essays and CD notes agree that he became active in the United Mine Workers in Mingo County and that in the early 1920s he worked alongside Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. Workman later recalled being present during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, when thousands of armed miners confronted coal company forces and state and federal troops in an effort to break anti union control in the southern coalfields.
After he left the mines he remained involved in labor struggles, especially around black lung. For years he received no compensation for the disease that had helped end his mining career. Only after federal black lung programs were established and amended did he finally secure benefits in 1971, something he saw not just as a personal victory but as recognition for miners “who had given their lungs to the coal companies.”
Out of this experience came one of his most important compositions, the autobiographical song often titled “Forty Two Years” or “42 Years.” Recorded by Mike Seeger in 1982 and later issued on the album I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful, the performance combines narrative and song. Workman talks about going into the mine as a teenager, working alone by lamplight in dark rooms, and singing to keep himself company while he loaded his coal. The verses that follow compress decades of work, injury, and organizing into a few stark minutes.
Songs of coal, faith, and protest
Workman’s repertoire reached far beyond labor songs. From his grandfather he learned older ballads that British and Scots Irish settlers had brought into the mountains. Reference works and reissue notes list his versions of pieces like “Lord Baseman” or “Lord Bateman,” “Lord Daniel,” “Biler and the Boar,” “Young Hunting,” and “Barbara Allen,” all cataloged in the Roud Folk Song Index and Child ballad collections through recordings made of him in West Virginia.
At the same time he wrote original songs grounded in coalfield life. “Coal Black Mining Blues” describes wading into a flooded working place, looking at a sad faced boss, and then discovering that after a dangerous shift he is still in the hole financially on the mine’s books. “Black Lung Song” and his various black lung pieces put the disease itself at the center of the lyric, turning illness into protest. “Mother Jones’ Will” takes the legendary organizer’s voice and frames her final wishes as instructions for the miners she loved, tying his own experience to the earlier era of tent colonies and mine wars.
His first full length record came through a small media collective in eastern Kentucky. In 1974 June Appal Recordings, the label associated with Appalshop in Whitesburg, issued Passing Thru the Garden, an LP featuring Workman and his daughter Phyllis Boyens. The album mixed traditional ballads, religious songs, and original pieces like “Forty Two Years” and “Passin’ Thru the Garden,” and it became the first release in the June Appal catalog.
A second major album, Mother Jones’ Will, followed on Rounder Records in 1978, recorded in Chattaroy by folklorist Mark Wilson. The Musical Traditions reissue of that record reproduces extensive autobiographical notes taken from interviews with Workman, making the CD booklet itself an important primary source on his memories of early mining, union struggles, and family life.
His voice also travels widely through compilation albums. Rounder anthologies such as Come All You Coal Miners and Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner’s Struggle include pieces like “Both Lungs Is Broke Down,” “The N and W (Don’t Stop Here No More),” and “Coal Black Mining Blues,” placing him alongside Sarah Ogan Gunning, Hazel Dickens, and other Appalachian singers whose work documented coalfield life.
Film, festivals, and late life recognition
As his singing became better known, filmmakers and fieldworkers turned their cameras toward him. In 1975 Appalshop released Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category, a black and white documentary directed by Scott Faulkner and Anthony Slone. Shot largely around his home, the film weaves conversation, everyday scenes, and songs into a portrait of an elderly miner who insists on defining himself rather than letting outsiders label him.
The following year he appeared in Barbara Kopple’s documentary Harlan County, USA, singing “Forty Two Years” and talking about mining and unionism. His presence in the film, though brief, became iconic enough that later profiles describe him as the gaunt, high voiced miner who breaks into song in one of the most influential labor documentaries in American film.
Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork television project also featured Workman. In the episode Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old, filmed when he was in his nineties, Lomax presents him as an example of how older tradition bearers carry both songs and stories that reach back before electrification, cars, and modern mine safety laws. Other film and television appearances include Chase the Devil: Religious Music of the Appalachians and The Grand Generation. In the feature film Coal Miner’s Daughter he can be heard leading a congregational “Amazing Grace” in a funeral scene set in eastern Kentucky.
Off camera, he performed frequently at festivals and community events. NEA and Appalshop materials emphasize his appearances at Appalshop’s Seedtime on the Cumberland festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and the 1982 World’s Fair, where his unaccompanied voice and distinctive high ornamented style stood out even among large lineups of traditional musicians.
In 1986 the NEA honored him with a National Heritage Fellowship, calling him an “Appalachian Ballad Singer” and printing extended excerpts from his own descriptions of mining life. He spent his later years in Mascot, Tennessee, while still traveling to perform, and died in Knoxville on November 26, 1994, at the age of ninety nine.
Three decades later the Library of Congress recognized the long arc of that life by selecting the Nimrod Workman Collection (1973 1994) for the National Recording Registry, a body of Appalshop recordings, interviews, and performances preserved as examples of American experience.
Why Nimrod Workman matters in Appalachia
Workman’s story ties together many strands of Appalachian history. He was a Martin County farm boy who followed coal to Mingo County, a miner who marched with Mother Jones at Blair Mountain, a father who raised thirteen children on mine wages, and a singer who carried both ancient ballads and brand new protest songs.
Because he left so many recordings and filmed interviews, historians do not have to imagine what a World War I era hand loader sounded like when he talked about work, sickness, and faith. We can hear him explain black lung in his own terms and then launch into “Black Lung Song” or “Coal Black Mining Blues,” turning policy debates into verses his neighbors understood.
Educators have started to use that record. A TeachRock lesson plan on “The Coal Mining Songs of Nimrod Workman” sets his music alongside Progressive Era and New Deal labor history, asking students to connect lines from his songs with events like Blair Mountain, company control of coal camps, and the long fight for black lung benefits.
At the same time, his ballads remind listeners that Appalachia is not only a region of coal and conflict. It is also a place where centuries old songs survived in the memories of people who spent their days in mines and their nights at kitchen tables. Workman’s ability to move from “Lord Baseman” or “Biler and the Boar” to a song about water up to his chin in a flooded room captures that dual identity.
For Appalachian history, Nimrod Workman matters because he was both subject and storyteller. His forty two years in the mines connect him directly to the region’s industrial past. His recordings, films, and interviews give us a rare chance to listen as that past tells its own story.
Sources and further reading
National Endowment for the Arts. “Nimrod Workman” National Heritage Fellow biography, with quotations from his reminiscences about mining, family, and songwriting. National Endowment for the Arts
Library of Congress. National Recording Registry entry “Nimrod Workman Collection (1973 1994)” summarizing his life, union activism, and Appalshop recordings. The Library of Congress
Appalshop. “Nimrod Workman Enters the National Recording Registry,” Appalshop news article announcing the Registry selection and outlining his Kentucky birth, life in Chattaroy, and performance career.
June Appal Recordings and Appalshop Archive. Passing Thru the Garden (JA001) LP and associated archive entries, documenting the first June Appal release with Nimrod and Phyllis Boyens and listing tracks such as “Forty Two Years.” Appalshop Archive+1
Rounder Records and Musical Traditions. Mother Jones’ Will (Rounder 0076, reissued as Musical Traditions MTCD512) and its reproduced CD booklet, which includes an extended autobiographical narrative drawn from interviews with Workman. Mainly Norfolk+2Musical Traditions+2
Twos and Fews / Drag City and Mike Seeger. I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful (2008 release of 1982 field recordings) and Justin Taylor’s essay “Underground Man” in The Nation, focusing on the song “42 Years” and Workman’s late life voice. The Nation+2Amazon+2
Alan Lomax and the Association for Cultural Equity. Lomax’s American Patchwork films and the Lomax Digital Archive biographical note, which place Workman in the context of older Appalachian tradition bearers and emphasize his Martin County roots and Chattaroy life. Cultural Equity Archive+1
Barbara Kopple and Rounder Records. Documentary film Harlan County, USA and the compilation Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner’s Struggle, where Workman’s songs appear alongside other coalfield singers. June Appal Recordings+1
Oxford American. “Appalshop Spotlight: Nimrod Workman,” a 2025 essay that situates his story within Appalshop’s broader work documenting central Appalachia. The Nation
TeachRock. “The Coal Mining Songs of Nimrod Workman,” a classroom resource that uses his music to teach about coal mining, union organizing, and black lung in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. TeachRock
Root Hog or Die blog. “Where Things Are Beautiful: Time Spent with Nimrod Workman,” a reflective fieldwork account that describes time spent with him in West Virginia and traces his stories of family, panther hunters, and recording sessions. Oxford American
David Holt. “Nimrod Workman” mentor profile, offering a performer’s view of Workman as both intense ballad singer and energetic, fun loving elder with “more energy than most folks half his age.”
Genealogical and community sources. Wikitree profile Workman 4614 and the Find A Grave memorial for Nimrod Workman (1895–1994), which together corroborate his birth in Martin County, his 1895–1994 lifespan, and burial information. WikiTree+1
Discography and song indexes. Mainly Norfolk and Musical Traditions discography pages and the Roud Folk Song Index entries for songs like “Coal Black Mining Blues,” “Black Lung Song,” and “Lord Baseman,” documenting the specific ballad variants and recordings made from Workman. Mainly Norfolk+2VWML Archives+2