Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Tattoo is one of the finest coal mining songs ever written, and is among the most recorded in his song book. Its metaphorical tattoo speaks to the many scars a life spent mining coal leaves on a person's body and soul, capturing the complex and conflicting emotions many West Virginians feel about a lifestyle interwoven with both family tradition and financial insecurity, and the lyrics express the pride and deep affection inherent to working intimately with the natural beauty of the land. Roger Deitz, Sing Out!, spring 2009

Buck Koptchak tests the torque on a coal mine roof expansion bolt. Two years earlier, his father lost his life doing the same job. Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, 1976. Photo: Earl Dotter. Click for pop-up.

Traveling down that coal town road.
Listen to my rubber tires whine.
Goodbye to Buckeye and White Sycamore.
I'm leaving you behind.
I've been coal man all of my life.
Laying down track in the hole.
Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind.
Blood veins blue as the coal.
Blood veins blue as the coal.

Somebody said, "That's a strange tattoo
You have on the side of your head."
I said, "That's the blueprint left by the coal.
Just a little more and I'd be dead.
But I love the rumble and I love the dark.
I love the cool of the slate,
It's on down the new road, looking for a job.
This traveling and looking I hate.
Just traveling and looking I hate.

I've stood for the union, I've walked in the line.
I've fought against the company.
Stood for the U. M. W. of A.
Now, who's gonna stand for me?
I got no house and I got no pay,
Just got a worried soul
And this blue tattoo on the side of my head
Left by the number nine coal.
Left by the number nine coal.

Self-portrait, Billy Edd Wheeler. From the collection of Bill and Maggie Burgess. Click for pop-up.

Well someday when I die and go
To Heaven, the land of my dreams.
I won't have to worry on losing my job
To bad times and big machines.
And I ain't gonna pay my money away
And lose my hospital plans.
I'm gonna pick coal while the blue heavens roll
And sing with the angel bands.

I've been a coal man all of my life
Laying down track in the hole.
Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind
Blood veins blue as the coal,
Blood veins blue as the coal.

Personnel: Billy Edd Wheeler, vocals; Paul Worley, guitar; Eddie Bayers, drums; Dennis Burnside, keyboard; Jack Jackson, bass guitar; Rafe Van Hoy, guitar; Pete Drake, steel guitar; Mark Casstevens, banjo, harp; Sheldon Kerlan String Quartet, strings; Marshall Morgan, engineer.

Billy Edd Wheeler is a member of Nashville Association of Musicians Local 257.

Photo from Earl Dotter exhibition: Appalachian Chronicle, 1969-1999.

What's number nine coal?

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