The song ‘Eighteen Hammers’ is perhaps the work song I personally found most affecting from the collection (and indeed it’s the one I’ve tackled myself). In fact, when Alan Lomax recorded this version, with lead voice Johnny Lee Moore calling together his work gang, Lomax said it was as though he were ‘summoning a heavenly group’.

Here’s the original song and two new versions:

A lyric sheet for the song – full lyrics are below:

Stuart Fowkes, Oxford, UK

“The original recording is an incredibly powerful and beautiful song, simultaneously expressing hope and despair, defiance and compliance, romanticising the sight and sound of the everyday working tools that assumed so much importance in the lives of the prisoners.

“Taking the fact that the hammers mark time in the song (or rather the song powers along the workers to keep up the pace) as a starting point, I imagined what it would be like if there were hundreds of prisoners, hundreds of hammers, all chiming rhythmically in and out of one another until the hammers themselves become a rhythmic symphony.

“The drum samples are made from pieces of metal, as are several of the source sounds from which synth parts are derived.”

Lianray Pienaar, Manchester, UK

“Using the original sound recording taken from the old penitentiary, I began to reimagine the piece by overlaying various textures by means of digital instrumentation.

“Aside from the minimal EQ reshaping I decided to keep much of the original recording untouched because I didn’t want to lose the human, intimate thread.

“Instead, I wanted to experiment and incorporate new sounds to accentuate interplay between the energy of the original recording and the technological elements, allowing the work to expand in a new direction.”

Song lyrics:

Well, there’s 18 hammers standing in a line,
Well, there’s 18 hammers standing in a line,
Well, they ring like silver and they shine like gold,
Well, they ring like silver and they shine like gold.
There ain’t no hammer that’ll ring like mine,
No,there ain’t no hammer that’ll ring like mine.
Well, you cut your corner boys like I cut mine,
Well, you cut your corner boys like I cut mine.
Well, I’ll be living when you be dying,
Well, I’ll be living when you be dying.
Well, I shot me a dead man, got a hundred years,
Well, I shot me a dead man, got a hundred years.
Well, a tree fall on me, I done been mo care,
Well, a tree fall on me, I done been mo care.
Well, I raised up my hammer, let it drop on down,
Well, I raised up my hammer, let it drop on down.
Well, look over yonder boys, all dressed in red.
Well, it looks like the children that Moses led.