In President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech this past January, the newly-elected commander in chief shared a message aimed at America’s defeated and downtrodden, saying, “From mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again.”
Trump made this promise to many Americans while on the 2016 campaign trail, but he perhaps courted none with the vow of overdue consideration more so than coal miners working in one of the country’s most fragile industries.
A new Rated Red production, “Black Rock Blues,” features one such coal miner and father of three, who — despite being laid off twice in one year — says things have been “more hopeful” since Trump won the presidency.
25-year-old Anson Core works at a mine just outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, about a 20 minute drive from his family home in Shadyside, Ohio. In Shadyside, Anson lives with his wife of five years, Brittany, and their three (soon to be four) children among the rolling green hills of Ohio’s River Valley. “I never wanted anything big and extravagant,” says Anson. “Just to settle down, work, make an honest living, come home, see my family and do it all over again.”
“Black Rock Blues” Executive Producer and Director Tommy Davis says his team wanted to “shatter stereotypes” of what coal miners look like, and started reaching out to churches in search of young miners willing to tell their story. He says he was lucky enough to get connected to Anson and Brittany.
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