Irene Kelley

We call a collection of songs an “album,” and never has the term been more apt than in Irene Kelley’s new bluegrass powerhouse, “Pennsylvania Coal.” It’s like leafing through the generations of a family photo album, while Kelley lovingly fills in the details and fleshes out the characters.One photo is literal. On the back cover is a 100-year-old shot taken at the mouth of the Crabtree, Pennsylvania coalmine, and among the miners is Kelley’s grandfather.