SongVault Artist Profile

Growing up on Garden Creek, Virginia in the heart of coal country, singer/songwriter Harvey Keene knows well the burdens coalminers face both physically and mentally to earn their daily bread and put a roof over their family's heads. Keene says, "Without a doubt, it is the toughest way there is to make a living. I've seen men work ten and twelve hour shifts, blasting and cutting seams of coal with a ceiling so low you rode a flatcar in lying on your back and worked cutting and loading on your knees." The recent mine disasters brought back a lot of memories. "Things are really no different than they've always been. It's just plain old greed on behalf of the coal company," Keene believes. "Maximize profit for their shareholders. Safety be damned! The miners don't complain because that's the only work around that pays a living wage. And at that," he says, "It ain't great money. It's a living." Harvey Keene's song, "Thunder Underground" off of his last CD release, "The Best That Money Can Buy," is a tribute to the coalminers and those in particular, lost in the recent disasters and also to their families. While his song is about a disaster that occured in the Red Jack Mines in Virginia in 1938, the parallel between that story and the most recent disasters is truly amazing.Harvey Keene spent his early years in Garden Creek, VA. and spent a lot of time during the summer in Manassas on his uncle's farm. Perhaps that is where his love for folk/pop music made room for a decidedly country edge. After his father's death, the family moved to Abingdon, VA