Ghosts of West Virginia centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. When asked about what drove him to craft his deeply evocative new album, Steve Earle says, I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didnt vote the way that I did, he says. One of the dangers that were in is if people like me keep thinking that everybody who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then were fucked, because its simply not true. So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.