[dcab-l] Rattlesnake Hill Cover: Take This Hammer

Songwriters & Music Lovers:

 

Here is a Rattlesnake Hill practice version of the Folk/Bluegrass song Take This Hammer.

 

Take This Hammer is a traditional 1870s American prison work song made famous by

blues artists like Lead Belly.  It generally means carrying the heavy burden of oppression,

and a desire to escape from brutal forced labor.

 

Take This Hammer was issued on a commercial 78-rpm single by Lead Belly in 1940 and

again in 1942.  Lead Belly added a "haah" at the end of each line: "Every time the men say

'haah', the hammer falls. The hammer rings, and we swing, and we sing."  (In saying "we",

he was undoubtedly referring to his many years as an inmate of the notorious prison farm in

Angola, Louisiana. (Of note, the legend is that Lead Belly sang his way out of jail!)

 

This song is heavily tied to folklore about John Henry.  There is a group of songs referred) to

as "hammer songs" or "roll songs" (wheelbarrow-hauling songs) with much the same

structure..

 

Bluegrass recordings include Osborne Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs recorded it in their

famous album: At Carnegie Hall.

 

Rattlesnake Hill Musicians (in order of pictures below):

 

Kevin Conroy         Lead Guitar

Carolyn Kellock     Bass

Heather Twigg       Fiddle & Harmony

Jack Sanbower     Banjo

Ed Schaeffer         Rhythm Guitar & Vocal

 

 

 

To listen, click:  http://rattlesnakehill.org/Web_Music/edsmusic.html

Ed