Music Double CD – Hammered in Iron : Railroad Songs and Stories

Product Description

This double CD includes 21 traditional songs about the rails and related themes along with dynamite interpretive introductions. This album is a true representation of the “Alive” entertaining, yet educational, stage performances of the group.    $12.00 (sales tax included)

Song List

Disc One

1.  Lining Track (Traditional) – Black work gangs called “Gandy Dancers” used this style of music to help them to reline railroad tracks.
2.  Railroad Medley  (Traditional Songs) – A medley of three of America’s favorite railroading songs –  Wabash Cannonball,  I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad, and She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.
3. Celebrated Workingman  (Ed Foley, 1892) – Written by one of the most picturesque of the anthracite minstrels, this is a satire on the off-hour braggart of the mines.
4. John Henry  (Traditional) – Tells of an African-American who helped to construct the Big Bend tunnel on the C&O railway.
5. The Wagoners’ Curse on the Railroad (Anonymous) –This ballad dramatizes the Conestoga wagoners’ plight when the railroad doomed  their calling.
6. Paddy on the Canal  (Traditional) –An Irish song describing life digging America’s canals.
7. Paddy on the Railroad (Traditional) –Irish Gandy Dancer song which kept the rail-spikers in beat as they built America’s railroads
8. No Irish Need Apply (Words by J.F. Poole, 1860’s) – A song from the stage of the 1860’s — the Irishmen’s reply to the phrase “No Irish Need Apply”.
9. Drill Ye Tarriers Drill (Words by Thomas Carey, 1888) – A rock blasters epitaph in music.
10. Never Take the Hindshoe From A Mule  (Traditional) –A tribute to America’s forgotten “beast of burden”–the MULE!

Disc Two

1. E-R-I-E   (Traditional) – In flood season when the water starts to rise on the canal, people remember the words to this song.
2. The Frozen Logger (Composed by James Stephens) – A humorous ballad about the lonely life in logging camp.
3. Gettin’ Saved –Two popular revival songs of the past, The Old Country Church, and Life’s Railway to Heaven  talk about the “real” meaning of life.
4. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Words by Jack Norworth, 1908) – A classic which includes the often unknown verses about a woman’s madness for our  National Game!
5. Turning the Pups Loose (Instrumental) – Showcases the talents of Joe Meck (guitar) and Van Wagner (mandolin).
6. Civil War Medley (Cornet Instrumental by Rich Pawling) – includes The Last Rose of Summer, The Yellow Rose of Texas, Aura Lee, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
7. The March of the Mighty Ironmen (Written by Rich Pawling, 1993) –Dramatizes the lives of Ironmen  frustrated with their pay.
8. The Johnstown Flood (Anonymous) – A ballad  describing the aftermath of one of America’s worst natural disasters.
9. The Big Rock Candy Mountain  (Traditional) – Tells of that most wondrous place that every hobo dreamed of visiting when they departed from this earth.
10. The Wreck of the 97 (David George, 1903?)  – A tribute to all who lost their lives in the wreck of old engine 97 between Monroe & Spencer, Virginia on September 27, 1903.
11. The Ballad of Jesse James (Attributed to Billy Gashade, 1882) –Tells the story of infamous brothers Frank and Jesse James.