Nimrod Workman

Nimrod Workman: became familiar to the outside world through his involvement with the struggle to obtain better benefits for Black Lung victims in 1970s (Nimrod had the disease himself, as did most of the other former coal miners I knew).  His son-in-law was, in fact, an important labor lawyer with the UMWA.  Nimrod had composed a few pertinent songs and Ken Irwin of Rounder Records wished to make a second LP recording of Nimrod (an album for June Appal had already appeared).  Ken asked me to supervise the session which was mainly devoted to Nimrod's quite extensive knowledge of traditional material.  I have been lately preparing that Rounder LP (Mother Jones' Will, Rdr 0051) for reissue and extension within Rounder's Archive Series.  Because so much fine material was recorded, I thought we might include a few additional items here.  The Rounder set includes a fascinating autobiographical statement drawn from our interviews with Nimrod.

When we were recording, Nimrod asked his wife Molly to join in on several charming religious numbers and, as stated above, I hope to release more of these in the future.  On Nimrod's earlier LP (JA 0001), he had recorded similar duets with his daughter Phyllis.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mark Wilson, to the Musical Traditions Records 4-CD set Meeting's a Pleasure (MTCD341-4)