Take This Hammer
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"Take This Hammer" is a prison, logging, and railroad work song, which has the same Roud number as another song, "Nine Pound Hammer", with which it shares verses. "Swannanoa Tunnel" and "Asheville Jun
Convicts leased to build a railroad in Asheville, North Carolina, 1892
Lead Belly
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Huddie Ledbetter, better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he intr
Take This Hammer
…prisoners who sang it (also while cutting lumber), as "This Old Hammer Killed John Henry". "Take This Hammer" was issued on a commercial 78-rpm single by Lead Belly in 1940 and again in 1942. In his performance on this record, Lead Belly added a "haah" at the end of each line, explaining in his spoken introduction…
Ledbetter with a melodeon c. 1942
Lead Belly's draft registration card in 1942 (SERIAL NUMBER U2214 and address listed as 604 E 9TH ST., N.Y. N. Y.)
Ledbetter at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. between 1938 and 1948
Lead Belly and Martha Promise Ledbetter, Wilton, Connecticut, February 1935