This old hammer killed John Henry, won’t kill me

Chain gang near Asheville, 1915. Postcard image. Text in upper right reads âStripes but no Starsâ (Image from North Carolina Office of Archives and History)
This is the second of three posts on âSwannanoa Tunnel.â You can read the first here and the third here.
North Carolina-based musician and radio host Wayne Erbsen makes a curious claim in introducing his performance of âSwannanoa Tunnelâ on the compilation album In the Land of the Sky:  Songs and Stories of the Swannanoa Valley.  He says that it is a âtrue song, that was sung by the crew that actually built the tunnel,â and talks about the source of the first recorded version.
Whatever Erbsen means in this context by âtrue song,â I believe heâs right in saying that the first recorded version of âSwannanoa Tunnelâ was Lunsfordâs (whom we listened to in the previous post).  Credit for âcollectingâ the song in some published format, however, goes to Cecil Sharp, who collected it for English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as âSwannanoa Town.â  Lunsford acknowledges this in the comments I quoted from him in the previous post; and he rightly, I think, dismisses Sharpâs thesis about it. This website tells the story of Sharpâs collection and him presenting us with a mondegreen.  Artus Moser gives us a faithful rendering of Sharpâs misheard collected version, complete with the âhoodow calling,â on his North Carolina Ballads.
âSwannanoa Townâ performed by Artus Moser (Spotify)
Music for âSwannanoa Townâ from Cecil Sharpâs âEnglish Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachiansâ
âThe relation of âSwannanoa Tunnelâ to John Henry work songs is something of a puzzle, and I have not investigated the tune derivations as much as I should. The tune in Lunsford and Stringfield is fairly common as a John Henry work song tune. As you have probably noticed, it is very similar to the tune in my book, p. 80, transcribed from a Brunswick phonoÂgraph record. I have never yet seen or heard a version of this tune which did not include a John Henry stanza, and I think this is pretty good evidence that the early history of the tune was closely connected with a work song about John Henry. The real derivation of the tune, of course, is probably to be found in an old hymn, but in its present secular usages, I am inclined to think that it has had a longer connection with John Henry than with the other work song types like âSwannanoa Tunnelâ.â
Something of a puzzle

Cecil Sharp (source Wikipedia)
4. An English Folk Song transplanted to Southern Appalachia, which may or may not have been informed by an old hymn tune. Â Again, much of this, Sharpâs theory, was dismissed pretty much right away with Lunsfordâs comments, and probably correctly. Â Itâs possible that some source of the music came from English sources or hymnody; but, as weâve seen, there can be a tendency among folklorists of this time to point back to âmore authenticâ sources even without real evidence.
Iâm of the opinion that âpuzzleâ is a less apt metaphor than âriver deltaâ for what is going on with this songâa river with a few tributaries to begin with, and a number of cross-currents.If the song was indeed a song sung by the workers, Iâm not sure how one goes about verifying (or falsifying) this claim, if itâs actually important to do so. Â There are at least three points of curiosity for me on this point, though. The first is how and when this song might have been sung by the workers. The second is âwhich workers?â. Â Lastly, when might this song have taken on a more or less definitive shape and become its own song?
In the previous post, we read Wilma Dykemanâs account of music in the work camp: âif there was a banjo or guitar handyâand there usually wasâsomeone âmade musicâ for the camp. The lonely, bawdy, sentimental, realistic music of all railroad camps, all men in stripes everywhere.â âSwannanoa Tunnelâ fits this description in some elements, but not others. Â In most versions, though, it is hard to imagine it being sung while doing hard labor, or without the benefit of instruments.
Among the recorded versions I can find, there is only one that forms the song into a âfield hollerââan arrangement that might plausibly have been sung by workers while working. This is Frank Warnerâs performance of âAsheville Junctionâ from the Newport Folk Festival:
One thing that strikes me as a little odd is that I canât find a single example of an African-American interpreter of the song, from any era. Â If you know of any, please tell me. Â âJohn Henry,â for example, doesnât lack on this score. Â 94% of the workers constructing the rail line and the tunnel were African-American, but I canât find any evidence that this song has been carried forward by African-American interpreters.
Any number of plausible reasons may account for this, including limited access such interpreters (particularly convicts or ex-convicts) may have had in the late 19th or early 20th centuries to having their performances documented or recorded. Â We shouldnât mistake whatâs documented for what is real. Â Itâs possible that the song was part of the repertoire of some early African-American string bands, whose music is now being revived through the music of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, among others.
The African-American prisoners brought in to build the rail line and the tunnel were mostly not from the region. Â Most, I imagine, left; and the song likely remained behind as a bit of local folklore. Â Many of the workers who survived the construction were probably just as happy to leave the memory of its building completely behind.

Alan Lomax (source: openculture.org)
Iâve mentioned before the musical similarity of âSwannanoa Tunnelâ to âNine Pound Hammer,â which is also thought to be a close musical relative of âTake This Hammer,â if not the same song. Â Although most of the versions of âNine Pound Hammerâ you will hear are in the bluegrass genre, you can hear in this recording, collected by Alan Lomax of âTake This Hammer,â traces of the root song. Â Lomaxâs recording was made at Parchman Farm in Mississippi in 1947. Â It may be that Warnerâs version, despite being anomalous, is maybe a little closer to authentic than all the rest.
Weâve had occasion earlier in this blog to discuss how songs and stories that may have started from within an African American context gradually, or not so gradually, get taken over, or have their sources obscured by broader social factors or the overwhelming force of the âfolk process.â  Itâs a strange, but not uncommon, issue of cultural visibility and appropriation.  I donât know that thatâs what happened here, though.  My best guess is that if this was a song actually sung by the workers, something like âTake This Hammerâ or âNine Pound Hammerâ came in with them, and the song became âSwannanoa Tunnelâ for a time.  When the workers left, âSwannanoa Tunnelâ stayed, and flowed into a few other streams, at least when it came to musical arrangement.
Itâs an interesting question as to how many different forms it may have taken before it was âcollectedâ by Sharp or Lunsford.  Was the John Henry reference contemporaneous to the 1879 construction, or was that added in later?  Many different questions.  Nevertheless, it seems clear that most varieties of the song now available take their bearings from Lunsford in approach and instrumentation.  Regardless, in thinking about Erbsenâs claim that âSwannanoa Tunnelâ is a âtrue song,â we can take refuge in what Tom acknowledged in a comment on one of last weekâs posts: âfolk music is always true; sometimes, however, the facts are different.â
Next up
In wrestling through a few different issues with this post, which actually surprised me a bit with how tangled it became, I find that I need to defer fulfillment on one of the promises made in the previous. Â So, in my next and (I think) final post on âSwannanoa Tunnelâ this week, Iâll provide a few more interesting versions of the song, including, importantly for our purposes, a few with not so subtle hints of murderousness.
Iâll leave you with British guitarist Martin Simpsonâs instrumental version of âSwannanoa Tunnel.â Â Iâm sure Cecil Sharp would be happy to hear it.