Jim Garland (April 8, 1905 – September 6, 1978) was a miner, songwriter, folksinger, and folk song collector from the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

country of eastern Kentucky, where he was involved with the communist-led National Miners Union (NMU) during the violent labor conflicts of the early 1930s called the Harlan County War. Garland came to New York City in 1931 with his older half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson and later followed by sister Sarah Ogan where he participated in the Greenwich Village folk music scene. Two of his best-known songs are "The Death of Harry Simms" and "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister." During World War II he moved, together with Sarah's family, to Vancouver, Washington, to work in the shipyard. In 1944 he founded a broom factory which he ran for many years.Jim Garland, ''Welcome the Traveler Home: Jim Garland's Story of the Kentucky Mountains,'' ed. by Julie S. Audery. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983. Garland sang at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963 and can be seen in documentary film footage seated behind and to the right of Bob Dylan as Dylan performs. His sister

Sarah Ogan Gunning Sarah Ogan Gunning (June 28, 1910 – November 14, 1983) was an American singer and songwriter from the coal mining country of eastern Kentucky, as were her older half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson and her brother Jim Garland. Although she made an ...

sang there in 1964. Also, Mr. Garland was a participant at the 1971 and 1974 Smithsonian American Folklife Festivals, held in Washington, D.C. Mr. Garland submitted various reel-to-reel tape recordings of himself, his daughter Betty, friends, neighbors and local church congregations to

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

, Inc. The tapes have been retained, and are archived in the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections of the

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage The Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage (CFCH) is one of three cultural centers within the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. Its motto is "culture of, by, and for the people", and it aims to encourage understanding and cultural sus ...

. Folkways Records never released any recordings of Jim Garland himself; however, in 1964, Folkways Records issued an LP recording of his daughter, Betty Garland, which was devoted to the Garland family folksong repertory. The album remains available from Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garland, Jim 1905 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American musicians People from Vancouver, Washington Songwriters from Washington (state)