Let Your Hammer Ring

Originally this song accompanied the driving of spikes into the wooden ties which held railroad tracks in place. The basic tool was a ten-pound hammer with two heads, hardly more than two inches in diameter. The steel-driving man swung freely in a complete circle about his head, then brought the hammer unerringly down on the spike. Since the railroad's disappearance at Angola, the same song has often been sung, as it is here, to facilitate wood-chopping. Unlike many of the group worksongs, "Let Your Hammer Ring" has artistic unity. The subject in this magnificent song swings naturally from the ring of the hammer to ringing a plea to the governor for pardon; the desire for a pardon leads logically to thoughts of Berta and a picture of her pleading to the judge for her man; with the singer now in prison, the next feeling is a fear that she will find another lover, then a fear that she doesn't love him anymore, that she may not even know him anymore, surprising since he had the prowess to carry off the captain's watch and chain (a most unlikely crime), and finally there is a coda to the song; the hammer is on fire, like the singer himself

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© &® 1959& 1997 by Arhoolie Productions, Inc.
ARHOOLIE cd 448

Testo e nota da :
PRISON WORKSONGS
Smithsonian Institution