With over 3.5 million pounds of explosives detonated each day, mountaintop removal has devastated a land area larger than the state of Delaware and buried roughly 2,000 miles of streams with rubble. Coal Country Music, released last year with the provocative mountaintop-removal documentary Coal Country, is a tribute to Appalachia’s rich cultural and musical traditions. The CD features songs by Willie Nelson, the Klezmatics, Kathy Mattea, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Merchant, and Gillian Welch, with liner notes by Woody Harrelson and Ashley Judd. All tracks were donated by the artists, and all proceeds go to the Alliance for Appalachia to stop mountaintop removal. The CD and documentary are projects of Heartwood, a regional network that encourages community advocacy for the protection of the eastern United States’ hardwood forests.

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