Music Saves Mountains

Concert Highlights

NRDC sponsored a star-studded Music Saves Mountains benefit concert on May 19th, 2010 at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium. This was the biggest gathering of singers and songwriters to raise awareness of - and to fight against - mountaintop removal coal mining, which is devastating Appalachia. Featured performers included Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris, along with special guests Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Alison Krauss, Big Kenny and more. Read more...

GAC Video

Interview with Dave Matthews

Interview with Kathy Mattea

Movies Save Mountains: Event Highlights

Concert Press Conference

» Contact Us » Home

Webpage produced in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org

Mountaintop Removal Photo Credit: ©2009 J Henry Fair

This particularly bad form of mining literally uses dynamite to blow the tops off of mountains. They call this mountain top removal and it is destroying some of the most beautiful places in the United States, including here in Tennessee where I live. I think it is a crime against nature.

www.sherylcrow.com

Mountaintop removal is taking a big toll on the Appalachian region. In the end we're losing a tremendous, beautiful asset to our world.

Learn more about Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee's new album about mountain top removal, "Dear Companion"

www.bensollee.com/

Anyone who enjoys country music should appreciate where it originated - in the hollows and on the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. Anyone who loves the music should join us in saving these mountains.

www.gloriana.com/

The systematic destruction of the Appalachian mountains for coal mining needs to stop immediately. There are many other ways to mine coal without blasting away the scenic mountaintops that can never be replaced.

www.jamesotto.net/

Like Woodie Guthrie sang, this land belongs to you and me. That includes the Appalachians. We can't let coal companies go on tearing down our mountains and tearing up our American heritage.

www.justintownesearle.com/

Our people, our mountains and our waters are far too important to be sacrificed for something a short-sighted as mountaintop removal. Let's come together and find a better way forward.

Learn more about Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee's new album about mountain top removal, "Dear Companion"

www.danielmartinmoore.com/

2/3 Goat

Now is the time to stand, before our homeland is gone. In a Greenpeace documentary about civil disobedience protests against coal fired power plants entitled "The Real McCoys," which features my parents, my father says, "We're a throwaway culture. We're being sacrificed for what the mountains can give to the rest of the nation." I couldn't agree more. I'm not only proud of my Appalachian heritage, but also very proud of my most immediate family members for standing up and speaking for their area and ultimately for the world.

Listen to songs from 2/3 Goat's new album.

Jill Andrews

Mountains are part of our natural landscape here in America. Once they are gone, they are gone forever, and with them goes many species of plants and animals that all have their special place here in the environment. Mountain Top Removal is very unnecessary and very destructive. We should demand alternatives to this method.

Donna Beasley

I was born and raised in the Smoky Mountains, in Sevierville, TN, I am very concerned about the preservation of the natural beauty of my birthplace, from both mining and other commercial concerns. My music reflects what the mountains mean to me and I fear that future generations will blame us rather than thank us for our stewardship.

Michelle Belanger

We don't need to keep blowing up these beautiful and ancient mountains to light and heat our homes and businesses. The people of those communities deserve better than to have their homeland must be sacrificed for us to have electricity.

Penny Jayne Black

As a child I fell in love with Country music. To me the Appalachian mountains represent beauty, joy and peace , something to be proud of, something sacred to cherish, and something definately worth singing about.

David Bragg

As a West Virginia musician and teacher, I have a vested interest in the future of the Mountain State and its children. As long as coal companies put their profit margins before the safety, health and well-being of the people who inhabit this amazing land, West Virginia can never truly prosper.

Slinky Cobblestone

The mountains of Appalachia are the life-force of a never-ending chain of living systems that we as people depend upon. Mountaintop removal exists today only because a small number of people have decided to give you cheap electricity, while taking away your free clean air and water. The alternatives are here now, and more will come to light, as we shift toward new social systems that promote life.

Listen to his song against mountaintop removal, "Miner's Son".

Mike Cullison

I detest the destruction of our environment in the guise of prosperity. The solution to mountaintop removal requires solutions that take us beyond business as usual.

Deep River

Here in Ashville, North Carolina our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains have escaped the horrors of mountaintop removal. We mourn for our friends and neighbors to the north who are losing their beloved Appalachians.

Gabe Dixon

I have enjoyed the beauty of the Appalachian mountains since I was a kid and I want the same for my children and theirs. When a mountain is destroyed, it's gone forever. We have to stand up to protect what is left of these living treasures! We have to move to clean energy!

Mark Donham

Mountaintop removal coal mining is destruction that cannot be undone. You can't put back a mountain, when it's been blown away, and dumped into a valley - the dirty black coal hauled away.

Derek Evans

I find the idea of mountaintop removal criminal. This country is beautiful and if we continue to shy away, there will be nothing left for our children, children's children, and so on. Let's not be the cause, let's become the solution.

Watch Derek Evans sing 'Audio Readers'.

Tyler Herring

I live in Asheville, NC, a city surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains hold an ancient spirit that has inspired art and culture for many years. Today we are destroying in a very short amount of time what took nature many years to create. We cannot replace what we are taking and with every mountain top erased from the map, the spirit of the land dies a little more. That spirit is the essence of my music and an inspiration throughout the Appalachians. As a people, we cannot afford to lose such magic.

Honneycombs

The grandeur of this beautiful land should never fall into the hands of people who see its destruction as a financial opportunity. May all of our voices join in song to celebrate the beauty of the Earth we live upon.

Horizontal Blues Band

The mountains are our birthplace and our home. Like most people who live here, we want both a natural environment and an economic environment that will make Appalachia a great place to live. Tearing the mountains down won't get that for us.

James Low

Mountaintop removal is the greatest waste of one our nation's last, best natural treasures.

Misk Hills Mountain Rambler

We are so touched by the plight of the coal miners who risk their lives and the communities that suffer from the loss of the mountains.

Moontower

Mountaintop removal needs to be stopped today, not tomorrow.

Ned Mudd

Mountains have tops for a reason. Rivers flow for a reason. Mountain tops don't belong in rivers. Some things trump money.

The Muses

I am 11th generation Appalachian native on both sides of my family. The land is our heart beat. My land is precious to me. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to these beautiful mountains that God gave us to flourish in, not destroy.

One String Band

If we want to keep the 'country' in country music, we've got to keep the mountains.

Amber Oost

The Appalachian Mountains are giants that we should protect, not destroy.

T. Paige

I have been using my music to help end mountaintop removal since for over a decade and am very proud of the progress we've made.

Listen to When You Go.

Brett Ratliff

My home is in eastern Kentucky and even though coal mining has long been a part of our heritage here, we're being torn up by mountiantop removal. I'm the last remaining member of my family who hasn't been driven out. I stay to play my music and teach children throughout the area the rich cultural history that's being blown apart by the coal companies.