Diana Jones conjures heartrending images in her music. She's penned lyrics about murder, abandonment, and lost love that would make a stone weep. Still, the story of Henry Russell, the subject of the song "Henry Russell's Last Words" on her upcoming album 'Better Times Will Come' (Proper American, May 19th) gave even her pause. "I couldn't sing it in public for a few months," Jones explains. "There was just a point I'd get to, and I'd start to cry. I couldn't get past it."
It's no wonder.
It was more than 80 years ago this month that Henry Russell died in the Everettville coal mine in West Virginia, just one of over 100 miners who met their end in a disastrous cave-in that day. That might have been the end of his story, but for his impulse to use the last minutes of his life to scrawl a message to his wife.
In fading light, using a piece of coal and bits of paper torn from cement bags, Russell spoke of his eternal love for her, begged her to be happy, to remarry and make a life for herself and their children in America. "We have plenty of time to make peace with the Lord," he wrote of his slow 3 hour wait for death. His letter finally finished, he sealed it in his lunch pail and lie down to die.
With very little editing or additions, Jones set Russell's words to music to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the disaster. It's a beautiful song, already covered by Joan Baez on her Grammy-nominated album 'The Day After Tomorrow.'
Check out Diana Jones performing "Henry Russell's Last Words" here:
http://www.shorefire.com/media/DJ_HR_20090421_100454.movExcerpts from both Jones' song and Russell's letter are below.
Henry Russell's words, April 30, 1927
Still alive but air is getting bad. Oh how I love you, Mary.
Dear father, I will be going soon. We are just cold and when the air comes it will be bad as we are on the return side. Will meet you all in heaven. We are going to heaven. We have plenty of time to make peace with the Lord. H Russell
I will soon be going to leave this world. Stay in America and give kids a home and marry again if you have a notion but God bless you and the kids. HR
Dear Mary, tell father I was saved. Also the Erskines. We don't feel any pain. Try and stay in the USA. Love to the kids. H Russell
Diana Jones's lyrics to 'Henry Russell's Last Words' (excerpt)
Still alive, but the air is getting bad
Oh how I love you Mary (refrain repeated after each line)
I have made my peace with God
You did not ask why I go down in the mine
It was for the children, it was for better times
Stay in America and give the kids a home
Marry another, you should not be alone
They will lay me in a pauper's grave
Tell my father my soul is saved
Meet me in heaven, I'll wait for you there
Oh how I love you Mary
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