Lost Art Press

The Finest Worksong

Posted on by Lost Art Press

I’ve always been fascinated by work songs – generally A capella performances where the tempo governs (or is governed by) the pace of the labor. I first encountered these songs after high school while I was working on factory lines at liquor plants, table-making factories and a door-building facility.

These were sung, or sometimes hummed, in pace with the machinery. It is mesmerizing to participate in these songs, and that reverie is much needed when you spend 10 hours doing the same activity over and again. These songs are trance-inducing, like the hum of a beehive or the roar of an interstate.

Shakers were known for their work songs, which celebrated such mundane tasks as sweeping. And every since attending a performance of these Shaker work songs, I have yearned to write ones for woodworking.

Hand-tool woodworking has a rhythm that is absent in the roar of a planer or table saw. It is as regular as our hearts and our breathing.

Today as I was sawing up a bunch of red oak for a project, I tried to find a beat or a tune that corresponded with every stroke. I wanted something as transfixing as these work songs from 1966.

FolkStreams » Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison.

I’m not talented enough.

Perhaps we need to implore Tom Fidgen – a hand-tool woodworker and songwriter – to give it a stab. I know it’s possible.

Why? One of my most indelible memories from college is the day after U2 released the album “The Joshua Tree” in 1987. As I was walking through the food line that day the entire staff was singing “With or Without You” in full harmony.

It left me with chicken skin – like the FolkStreams film – that I cannot shake.

— Christopher Schwarz

43 thoughts on “The Finest Worksong”

      1. Indeed. Red Oak.

        There should be a blog entry up on this on the PW site tomorrow. It’s 16″-wide, quartersawn, arrow-straight red oak.

  2. The Alan Lomax recordings from prison farms and chain gangs are well worth the iTunes download fee, IMO. When my friends and I were building climbing walls in gyms around the Central US, we had these blasting on the sound systems. Also made a great soundtrack on promo and training videos we produced (long before iTunes was a gleam in Steve Jobs’ brain).

    Magical.

  3. Check out the Sing Out magazine website for all the folk music info. you can stand. It has been continually published here in the Lehigh Valley since the 60s, publishing all folk music from early English ballads to Bob Dylan to current music dealing with the Occupy Wall Street protests.

    Dan

  4. I listen to all sorts of music when i’m working. For mind-numbingly repetitive work, Johnny Cash seems to work well – the strong fast rhythms are easy to work to, and the lyrics tend to be pretty colourful which helps keep me amused.

    I also find myself listening to Frank Sinatra a lot, but I think that’s mostly because I know all the lyrics. Nothing like cutting tenons while singing “Fly me to the moon” at the top of your voice to warn the neighbours of your approaching senility.

  5. For me, sea shanties (of which there are several different varieties for tasks with different tempos) provide many examples of good work songs for hand tool work. South Australia and Rio Grande work really well for ripping long boards, and General Taylor is excellent for planing

  6. When I saw the title, I thought you were talking about REM’s (the band) song with that same title. The movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou has a song “Po’ Lazarus” which sounds a lot like the one in the beginning of the video you posted – a chain gang signing while chopping wood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AksY2gX1Dc

  7. I second Alan Lomax. Look up the Georgia Sea Islands recordings-negro spirituals from a population that had almost zero outside influence on their music. Incredible stuff

  8. Somehow the Folkstreams sounds and rhythms remind me of Marine Corps boot camp…………

  9. “the entire staff was signing “With or Without You” in full harmony.” When I read that, I’m not sure which image was more confusing – that you perhaps went to a school for the deaf or what signing in full harmony might look like…

      1. A “spell cheek” (lol) program would have concluded that “signing” is spelled correctly. 😉 A grammar checker wouldn’t have caught the difference either.

  10. U2? Really? I didn’t see that one coming. Anyway…
    Just today in the shop, Muse’s “Uprising” was playing while I was cutting some maple to length. It’s beat was perfect, and I think the subject matter might have some appeal to an anarchist.

    Jonathan
    ================================

  11. The rhythm of the song keeps everyone together, so nobody looks like – or can be – a slacker. The other benefit is that it keeps the axes moving and prevents accidents, even though each axman has his own movement and style. I hope they sharpened the axes at the end of the day.

    Thanks, Chris, for the story and the link.

    1. Work, work, work. Work, work, work. You boys need to find some time to relax.

  13. Have you ever listened to Ozark Mountain Daredevil’s recording of Beauty In the River? It open’s to what I think is a recording of someone sawing with a hand saw, setting the tempo and then you hear the saw in the background throughout the song. The saw is not in their live you tube performance but its on their album The Ozark Mountain Daredevils from 1973.
    Lloyd

  15. Thank you for the video link. Now I know one of the sources of Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband”

  16. I think the greatest work song of all is “Shoals of Herring”. It’s an amazing song, with a perfect timing and rhythm for sawing. And noone ever sang it better than The Clancy Brothers.

  17. Sea Chanteys here. Muddlehead had some good “Long Pull” songs there. For sure there is a common thread between all worksongs. What a great topic for some up and coming folk researcher.

  19. Chris,

    The mention of The Joshua Tree really took me back to ’87, my senior year of college – a time when the world seemed full of possibility – thanks for the memory jolt and for the excellent video. The QSRO in the photo looks ready as well!

    Pete

  20. Well, it was unlikely that the Shakers were singing lyrics involving a good smote on a Saturday night, free love, or slinky walkin’ ladies!

  21. Actually I always believed that Chris’ favourite work song was: “If I had a hammer” (OK, we all know that he does,but he likes hammering in the morning and in the evening and generally all over the world..

    I like singing as well, either shanties or traditional Danish songs, but I normally only do it if there is not too much brain work required to do the woodworking job. E.g. when planing a board or chopping out dovetail waste.
    But I can’t concentrate on singing or listening to music when I’m laying out dovetails with a divider or something like that.

  22. So am I the only one that DOESN’T listen to music in the shop? For whatever reason, it just doesn’t do anything for me. I’d much rather listen to a podcast or some form of talk radio if I feel the need for background noise in the shop.

    That said, I’m not a big music guy to start with. I’m the exact opposite of the guy that takes his iPod everywhere and always has one ear bud in listening to something new.

    Oddly enough, though, my wife makes fun of me for constantly humming or whistling. But it’s almost always a random Christmas song. Off key. Even in May or August.

    Weird, I know.

    1. Jason –
      I mostly listen to Tony Kornheiser, podcasts, NPR, or NPR podcasts. 🙂 I joke that NPR is my co-worker.
      Jonathan
      =======================================

    2. Jason, I never listen to anything in the shop, but I like singing myself. I get distracted by radio etc.
      Brgds Jonas

    3. No, not the only one! I was working with five violin makers on Saturday, and there was no electric music.

      I did take note, and there was one joint harmony of some Purcell, an awful rendition of some Gloria Gaynor, and anybody wanting to play an instrument was sent to another room…

      Some work was done too.

  23. If you’re ever in San Francisco on the first Saturday of the month, head down to the maritime museum’s wharf for a chantey sing-along. 30 years and running. They actually hold it inside an old sailing ship.

    I’m hoping to get something similar started in Los Angeles.

    1. Chuck,
      For the last 10 years there’s been a shanty sing on the last Friday of the month at the Whale and Ale restaurant in San Pedro.
      Jose Hernandez

  25. Over here, in Southern Indiana, we have a saying that is appropriate to this…
    Your not right – So you’ll fit right in !

  26. I’m curious, where did you get your red oak{what lumberyard}for the bookcase that you are building?

  27. With all the banjo music, I always assumed you’ve come across the work from the Texas boys. I think Guy Clark cornered the market on hand tool work with “The Carpenter”…

    “to be tough as a crowbar, to be quick as a chisel,
    fair as a plane and true as a level,
    to be straight as a chalkline and right as a rule,
    be square with the world son and keep good care of your tools.”

    As I usually say after singing this to my students: any questions?

    –Mr. Patrick

  28. I saw this entry and went straight to Spotify to pull up the title track of this post. After a little experimentation, I found that the pacing worked well for the back and forth motion of lapping the back of the latest plane I’m cleaning up.

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