abstract
| - %22Take This Hammer%22 (Roud 4299, AFS 745B1) is a prison, logging, and railroad work song, which has the same Roud number as another song, %22Nine Pound Hammer%22, with which it shares verses. %22Swannanoa Tunnel%22 and %22Ashville Junction%22 are similar. Together, this group of songs are referred to as %22hammer songs%22 or %22roll songs%22 (after a group of wheelbarrow-hauling songs with much the same structure, though not mentioning hammers). Numerous bluegrass bands and singers like Scott McGill and Mississippi John Hurt also recorded commercial versions of this song, nearly all of them containing verses about the legendary spike driver, John Henry; and even when they do not, writes folklorist Kip Lornell, %22one feels his strong and valorous presence in the song%22.
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