Never Leave Alive [Extra Quality]

Darrell Scott wrote the song in 1997 and recorded it on his debut album Aloha from Nashville.[1] The song is about the life of coal miners within the state of Kentucky. Scott said the inspiration for the song came from a visit to Harlan County, Kentucky, in an attempt to research his own family history. While in a cemetery attempting to find his great-grandfather's grave, he saw the phrase "you'll never leave Harlan alive" on a tombstone.[2] The writers of the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings described the song's plot line as being about "a federal lawman who had left his native Harlan County...but winds up dealing with adversaries back on the old home turf."[3] While the lyrics contain no reference to a federal lawman, the song was used in several episodes of the similarly themed Justified.

Never Leave Alive

Uncle Stevie Craft used to say that this fast-time/slow-time business was total foolishness. He set his railroad pocket watch by the "right time" and that's where it stayed, year round. More than once, other people, in his household, found themselves late to work because Uncle Stevie had set the kitchen clock back an hour to keep it synced with his watch. I'm reasonably sure, however, that the sun never came up at ten and set at three on Uncle Stevie's time. And, as usual, I don't know why I told you that.

To the best of my knowledge Will never worked inside the mines. He reportedly made pilings for shoring up the mines. Some said he wound up with a lot of mine land, but the deed index of Harlan County shows that Will owned no land at all, neither did he have a will.

The 1940 census and the entries surrounding those of William George Estes are quite interesting and gives us a flavor of what life was like in Harlan County. Among other things, this census tells us that William George Estes never attended school. Crocie has 4 years of school. Josephine at age 17 was classified as H3, probably 3rd year of high school. Sadly, Eveline had no school at 8 years of age. Perhaps Josephine was staying with someone in town.

I was overwhelmed with relief and at the exact same time, overwhelmed with sorrow for my brother. I tried to tell David a couple of times and he simply did not want to hear the results, so I never pushed it. By this time, he was gravely ill. He was my brother and I loved him and still do, regardless. If anything, he needed my love more than ever, although he would never have admitted to needing anything.

After a chilling opening that establishes the premise with some decidedly effective umph, we meet Rick Rainsford (John Hennigan), a reality show star on the sauce, hungover as he boards a charter boat with his manager, whose plan is to have the troubled loose canon redeem himself on a wilderness explorer cruise to support his hunting show. That includes bringing along Anna (Michelle Taylor), a spunky photojournalist to document the whole thing, and from the start, she and Rick clash. When the boat suffers a sudden series of explosions however, it leaves Rick, Anna, and a severely wounded crew member in a life raft washing up on a small deserted island. Or so they think. They are met by two strange men, both Russian. Ivan (Joseph Gatt), a hulking bald man and Colonel Zaroff (Eric Etebari) the leader of the two, who offer shelter before revealing a sinister plan that pits the two survivors against their creepy hosts in a, well, most dangerous game across the island. 041b061a72