“You can’t begin communicating with people unless you understand the texture of their lives, the realities that provide significance to their days,” says Steve Earle. ”That is the entire point of Ghosts of West Virginia.” Ghosts, his latest album with longtime band The Dukes, delivers raw, powerful, evocative songs about the catastrophic explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine, which killed 29 men in 2010. One of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters of his generation, Earle has distinguished himself as a master storyteller, and his songs have been recorded by a vast array of artists, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, the Pretenders, and more.