Steel Hammer was based on which African American folk hero who worked as a "steel-driving man"?
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Steel Hammer Steel Hammer is a 2009 composition for three sopranos and chamber ensemble by the American composer Julia Wolfe. It was first performed on November 21, 2009, at Zankel Hall by the contemporary classical music groups Bang on a Can and Trio Mediæval. The piece is based on the ballad of the African-American tall tale John Henry. The composition was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
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John Henry (folklore) John Henry is an African American folk hero. He is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel. According to legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered hammer, a race that he won only to die in victory with hammer in hand as his heart gave out from stress. The story of John Henry is told in a classic folk song, which exists in many versions, and has been the subject of numerous stories, plays, books, and novels. Various locations, including Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have been suggested as the site of the contest.
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Samuel Yellin Samuel Yellin (1884–1940), was an American master blacksmith, and metal designer.
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Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country blues to mostly African-American audiences. Through the 1930s and 1940s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with working-class African-American audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.
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Ma Rainey "Ma" Rainey (born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett, September 1882 or April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest African American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of blues singers to record. She was billed as the "Mother of the Blues".
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Utah Phillips Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips (May 15, 1935 – May 23, 2008) was an American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.
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Jennie Dean Jane Serepta Dean (15 April 1848 – May 3, 1913) (nicknamed "Jennie" or "Miss Jennie") was born into slavery in northern Virginia, freed as a result of the American Civil War, and became an important founder of churches and Sunday Schools for African Americans in northern Virginia. Dean founded the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth, which for more than four decades was the only institution of higher education available to African American youth in Northern Virginia, and one of only two in the state without overt religious affiliation.
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Ben Lilly Benjamin Vernon Lilly or Ben Lilly (1856 – December 17, 1936), nicknamed Ol' Lilly, was a notorious big game hunter, houndsman and mountain man of the late American Old West. He remains famous for hunting down large numbers of grizzly, cougars and black bears. A mix between a transcendentalist spirit and an ardent Christian, he is described as an unfathomable Southern wild character. He was a stern practitioner of simple living and outdoor freedom, roamed and hunted from Louisiana to Arizona and from Idaho to as far south as Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico, and was a subject of American folktales. He guided oiler W. H. McFadden and President Theodore Roosevelt in hunting expeditions, whom he intrigued and who wrote about him. He was arguably the most prolific hunter of apex predators in the history of North American hunting and also the last active mountain man of the historical American Southwest. He was not a conservationist but made important contributions of fauna specimens and naturalistic observations to American institutions and museums. He was a contradictory character and his exploits have been consistently exaggerated to folktale proportions, and most records are oral, bona-fide, Americana transcripts.
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Dox Thrash Dox Thrash (1893–1965) was an African-American artist.
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Shine (1910 song) Shine (originally titled That's Why They Call Me Shine) is a popular song with lyrics by Cecil Mack and Tin Pan Alley songwriter Lew Brown and music by Ford Dabney. It was published in 1910 by Gotham-Attucks and used by Aida Overton Walker in "His Honor the Barber", an African-American road show. According to Perry Bradford, himself a songster and publisher, the song was written about an actual man named Shine who was with George Walker when they were badly beaten during the New York City race riot of 1900.
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We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder (also known as Jacob's Ladder) is an African American slave spiritual based in part on the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder. It was developed some time before 1825, and became one of the first slave spirituals to be widely sung by white Christians. A number of artists have recorded notable versions of it, and it was used as one of the main themes in the critically praised documentary "The Civil War".
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Carry Me Back to Old Virginny "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" is a song which was written by James A. Bland (1854–1911), an African American who wrote over 700 songs. It is "not" an adaption by Bland of the "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" by the Christy Minstrels, also known by the title; "Floating Scow of Old Virginny", a song copyrighted by Edwin Pearce Christy in 1847. Bland simply appropriated the song title. Bland's song bears no rememblace to it melodically, harmonically, or in the lyrics (except that both songs are minstrel songs). This latter song was very popular during the California gold rush and the American Civil War. Many parodies were written on this melody, and popular with both miners, and Civil War soldiers and civilians. Bland's version, the best known, was written in 1878 when many newly-freed slaves were struggling to find work. The song has become controversial in modern times, with critics viewing the lyrics as racially insensitive.
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Clarence Remus Wilson Clarence Remus Wilson was a Rosine, Kentucky farmer who also played the fiddle and five-string banjo. He has been called one of the "greats" of hillbilly music, along with James "Uncle Pen" Vandiver, Kennedy Jones, and Bill Monroe. He also played with Blues musician Arnold Schultz, when Schultz was in town. There is a photo of Schultz and Wilson sitting outside on folding chairs, posing with their instruments, Schultz with his guitar and Wilson with his fiddle.
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Benjamin Bradley (inventor) Benjamin Bradley was an African American engineer and inventor. Born a slave in Maryland, around 1830, Bradley learned literacy from his Master's children when, at the time, was against the law to teach a slave how to read or write because they would demand rights. Bradley was also good at mathematics, and showed a natural talent for making things. As a teenager, Bradley was put to work at an office where he built a working steam engine from pieces of scrap metal. Others were so impressed with Bradley's mechanical skills that he was given a job as an assistant in the science department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland where he set up and helped conduct experiments. Professors at the Naval Academy were impressed with Bradley, saying he was smart, a quick learner, and did not make mistakes. Bradley was paid in full for his work, but the money he had made went to his Master, who allowed Bradley to keep five dollars a month for himself.
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Delta Blind Billy Delta Blind Billy, or Blind Billy, was an American Delta blues artist and outlaw. As a traveling bluesman in Mississippi, he performed with his contemporaries Arthur Big Boy Crudup and Papa Charlie McCoy. One of his notable songs, "Hidden Man Blues", was an early variant of "Man of Constant Sorrow", with the following lyric: "Man of sorrow all my days / Left the home where I been raised." He recorded his version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" in the 1930s. His play on "Man of Constant Sorrow" suggests he traveled extensively, possibly through Appalachia.
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Johnny &quot;Man&quot; Young Johnny Young (January 1, 1918 – April 18, 1974) was an American blues singer, mandolin player and guitarist, significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after the Second World War. He was one of the few mandolin players active in blues music in the postwar era. His nickname, Man, came from his playing the mandolin.
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The Bourgeois Blues "The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by American folk and blues musician, Lead Belly. It was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that Lead Belly faced during a visit to Washington, DC to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism, the Jim Crow laws, and the conditions of contemporary African Americans in the southern United States.
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William J. Carpenter William J. Carpenter (April 17, 1827 - February 21, 1921) was a legendary West Virginia outdoorsman. He was said to have had "no equal" in skills at hunting and fishing, and to be the best long rifle marksman in his community in his younger years—his skill in hitting difficult targets in squirrel hunting earned him the nickname "Squirrely Bill."
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Caleb Hammer Caleb Hammer is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an Old West Pinkerton detective.
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Otis Blackwell Otis Blackwell (February 16, 1931 – May 6, 2002) was an African-American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock and roll. His compositions include "Fever", recorded by Little Willie John; "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless", recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis; "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender" (with Winfield Scott), recorded by Elvis Presley; and "Handy Man", recorded by Jimmy Jones. He is not to be confused with the songwriter and record producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.
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The Blacksmith Blues "The Blacksmith Blues" is a song which was written for Ella Mae Morse by Jack Holmes. The recording reached #3 on the "Billboard" chart when it was released in 1952, and sold over a million copies. Recordings were later made by Bing Crosby, the John Barry Seven, and others. Harry James released a recording on Columbia 39671 with Toni Harper on vocals.
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Jack Ingram (racing driver) Jack Ingram (born December 28, 1936) is a former NASCAR Busch Series race car driver. Nicknamed the "Iron Man", during eight seasons in the Busch Series, he won 31 races and 5 poles, as well as the 1982 and 1985 championships. Unlike most younger competitors, Ingram won his 31 races between the age of 45 and age 50. During most of his time in the series he drove the Skoal Bandit car (1984 to 1991). Throughout his Busch Series career he almost always raced in the No. 11 car. During the 1986 season, Ingram was suspended for two races by NASCAR after ramming a driver during a race in Asheville, North Carolina.