West Virginia: Crooked Road

Although Chris Knight is from a Western Kentucky mining town, his song “Crooked Road” is about mining in Logan County, West Virginia and the tragedies that often affect the families of miners. Knight understands mining as he was a mine reclamation inspector and had worked for the Kentucky Department of Mining.

“Crooked Road” is also about getting away from the past – which means leaving Logan and its associated tragedies behind. Exiting West Virginia is difficult – I know, I’ve lived here a long time. Even when I go away, I keep coming back.

I’m sure of Knight’s affinity for Logan – but there are a lot of nice people there. I worked in downtown Logan during the summer of 1976 and have had an association with that part of West Virginia since 1975.

“Crooked Road” appears on Knight’s 2008 CD “Heart of Stone” and was co-written with Dan Baird who produced it and played a number of instruments on the recording – although “Crooked Road” only features Knight on acoustic guitar and vocals.