BIG STONE GAP — A collection of coal mining tunes published by a local youth organization has garnered an international award for Best Historical Album, catching local officials off-guard because they had no idea their recording project was being evaluated.

"Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields" was recorded at Maggard's Sound in Big Stone Gap and published by Lonesome Records, a program of Lonesome Pine Office on Youth.

LPOY Executive Director Paul Kuczko received the award in the mail last week, and at that point learned the full scope of recognition for the agency's project.

Unknown to Kuczko, the album had been under evaluation by the Just Plain Folks Awards program for some time. "It was a complete surprise," he said.

When he first got word of the honor, Kuczko said he thought it was a scam — "one of those deals where you get asked to buy a big expensive book listing your project as a winner.

"When I first got the email saying we'd won an international award, I didn't click on it because I thought it was a virus. When I got the second email, I sent it to The Post, and they researched it and it turned out it was legit."

Accompanying the award announcement was the following message.

"You have a distinction that may well stand for quite some time. To survive 17 months, including five pre-lim rounds of screening and then rise to the very top of the final nominees is really impressive.

"We had entries from 163 countries . . . Only 80 songs out of 560,000 won an award, and only 93 albums out of over 42,000 won an award . . . You should be proud of this accomplishment, knowing that there were no industry politics or insider deals or special treatment and it certainly wasn't a popularity contest.

"You did this 100 percent on your own and based solely on your music moving people."

The Just Plain Folks Music Award in the Historical Album category now has a proud place in Kuczko's office.

"With all that competition, it's amazing that we won. It just goes to show that 'Music of Coal' has 'long legs,' as they call it in the recording industry. It's still selling steady and receiving recognition more than two years after it was released."

Kuczko said that from a total of 10,000 albums — 5,000 that sold out the first time and 5,000 reordered — more than 7,000 copies have sold to date.

"That's not bad for the first CD Lonesome Records put out. It helped us get established, and the profits from it are helping young artists get their first CD recorded," he noted.

In a couple of weeks, Kuczko said, an album for young vocalist Adam Larkey will be complete. An album for the Midnight Ramblers was well-received and the young bluegrass band has since performed internationally.

Over the weekend, a Nashville producer and nationally known drummer came to Maggard's Studio in Big Stone Gap to work on an album with Folk Soul Revival, a group that had its origin at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

"What we're trying to do is give your young artists a leg up, so to speak. Give them an album they can sell when they perform at shows, and give the youth in our program the chance to learn about marketing and promoting albums. It's a great program."

"Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields" is a two-CD set containing 48 songs, with a play time of about two hours and 18 minutes. It is packaged with a 70-page book of liner notes, photographs and words to songs. Copies can be purchased at LPOY, The Post and the Southwest Virginia Museum.

'Music of Coal' wins Historical Album award