The Big Hewer - A Radio Ballad by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker & Peggy Seeger, released on Argo in 1967 but first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1960. Coalmining presented itself as a natural subject for a radio ballad since Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger had spent part of 1960 working as resident songwriters and music arrangers for the National Coal Board film department. The Big Hewer was the fourth in the series and named after the mythically prodigious miner of coal legend who appears by a different name in each mining locality (a similar figure with superhuman work powers, John Henry, exists in American work gang mythology). https://ewanmaccoll.bandcamp.com/album/the-radio-ballads-the-big-hewer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf7LuLSJBLM #EwanMcColl #PeggySeeger #CharlesParker #RadioBallad #FolkMusic #CoalMining #BBC #Music