Jean Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer and Appalachian dulcimer player. Became known as “The Mother of Folk”. As well as work songs and ballads, Jean knew hymns from the “Regular Baptist” church she attended in Jeff, Kentucky. These were sung as “lining out” songs, in a lingering soulful way. One of the songs they sang was Amazing Grace. She wrote some songs, including one on the effects of strip mining in Kentucky. (Some of Ritchie's late 1950s/early 1960s songs on mining she published under the pseudonym "'Than Hall" to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.)