So Emily and I become parents on Friday afternoon and we decided to name this (freakin' amazing!) kid Hazel after one of West Virginia's most loved bluegrass singers, Hazel Dickens, who wrote a lot of songs about coal injustice and sang at protests, strikes, rallies, etc. She now lives in Baltimore, where my Dad lives. A couple weeks ago my Dad listed a stand-up bass on Craigslist and the guy who ended up buying it was Hazel Dicken's nephew Arnold, who is himself a bluegrass musician. Dad got to talking to him and told him we were planning on naming our expected baby Hazel after his aunt and he got very emotional and was surprised that "kids our age" even knew who Hazel Dickens is.

After our Hazel was born, Dad called Arnold to tell him that Hazel was born and that her full name is Hazel Mae Iafrate. He called his aunt Hazel and she said her sister's name was Mae and that she was the "independent" one in the family, the first to drive a car and to get a job.

Maybe little Hazel will get to meet the great Hazel Dickens someday.

Here are parts one and two of a WV PBS broadcast on Hazel Dickens' career:

And here is a video for a version of the Hazel Dickens' song "West Virginia, My Home" that my brother and I recorded some time back ago: