This recording is available on the Florida Memory Project.

Time	Annotation	Layer
41:48	[Distortion]	Distortion
44:33	[Distortion]	Distortion
45:20	[Distortion]	Distortion
0:48 - 0:52	2714 B1 and 2	Library of Congress
5:41 - 5:44	2715 A1 and 2	Library of Congress
10:38 - 10:41	2715 B1 and 2	Library of Congress
15:36 - 15:39	2716 A1 and 2	Library of Congress
20:26 - 20:29	2716 B1	Library of Congress
23:28 - 23:32	2717 A1, 2, and3	Library of Congress
27:49 - 27:53	2717 B1 and 2	Library of Congress
32:53 - 32:57	2718 A1 and 2	Library of Congress
37:37 - 37:41	2718 B1, 2 and 3	Library of Congress
42:22 - 42:24	2720 A1 and 2	Library of Congress
45:26 - 45:28	3135 A	Library of Congress
49:29	3135 B1 and 2	Library of Congress
53:48	3136 A	Library of Congress
58:18 - 58:23	3136 B	Library of Congress
0:53 - 1:01	[Inaudible]	Inaudible
5:47 - 5:60	[Inaudible]	Inaudible
15:44 - 15:50	[Inaudible]	Inaudible
37:43 - 37:54	[Inaudible]	Inaudible
18:06 - 18:06	Alright.	Herbert Halpert
20:32 - 20:33	Alright. Let's play.	Herbert Halpert
27:59 - 27:60	Alright.	Herbert Halpert
32:60	Alright.	Herbert Halpert
35:48 - 35:50	[inaudible] Now go.	Herbert Halpert
40:39	Alright sing!	Herbert Halpert
41:31 - 41:33	Go ahead. Sing it again.	Herbert Halpert
45:50	How long ago was that?	Herbert Halpert
45:56	How did you happen to be going around getting songs?	Herbert Halpert
46:06	What is the song called?	Herbert Halpert
46:17	Will you try to emphasize, give me the approximate rhythm of the hammer with the stick by hitting it against that?	Herbert Halpert
48:08	I see you, you seem to be hitting down twice for a hammer. Why is that?	Herbert Halpert
48:23	Immediately afterwards?	Herbert Halpert
48:27	I see [strike, strike] and how long is that between the double strikes?	Herbert Halpert
48:37	And who does the singing?	Herbert Halpert
48:46	Is this for a whole crew of men?	Herbert Halpert
48:55	What I'm asking you is if you hear that you only hear the one man singing on a whole section of track.	Herbert Halpert
49:09	Well now look, uh, the only thing is that you were giving a long piece of singing without the rhythm of the hammer and I want to know approximately how often that comes.	Herbert Halpert
49:34	[inaudible]	Herbert Halpert
49:47	Inaudible.	Herbert Halpert
49:57	What kind of song is it?	Herbert Halpert
50:51	I'd like you to do that again. But this time, when they have . . . What do they call the irons they use?	Herbert Halpert
50:57	Alright. The lining bar. When they work but don't you hear the clink of it?	Herbert Halpert
51:08	They hit against it?	Herbert Halpert
51:13	Because over in Mississippi, they showed me by hitting the thing. They said that the way that they did it was by several men taking a short hit.	Herbert Halpert
51:31	Well, now what do they do? Are they pulling it, pulling it --	Herbert Halpert
51:34	In other words, they have it underneath and they're using the lever to go forward.	Herbert Halpert
51:40	Alright.	Herbert Halpert
51:43	About how many are there on a bar?	Herbert Halpert
51:44	Oh, some time it's about 7 or 8 on at one time.	Herbert Halpert
51:49	Hmhm. Well, I suppose you try it and you sing it over again.	Herbert Halpert
51:53	Or chant it.	Herbert Halpert
52:34	What's it used for?	Herbert Halpert
54:04	About how long ago?	Herbert Halpert
56:01	This is again for lining?	Herbert Halpert
56:03 - 56:06	Now where is the movement?	Herbert Halpert
56:12 - 56:16	In other words, this song gives them quite a lot of rest in between.	Herbert Halpert
56:17 - 56:18	And a harder shove?	Herbert Halpert
56:21 - 56:26	It seems to have had a different effect from the other lining one you gave, I mean that one about Mobile.	Herbert Halpert
57:19 - 57:22	Well, wait a minute. They pull back . . . and how are they facing in relation to the rail.	Herbert Halpert
57:25 - 57:28	In other words, they're pulling up on the bar.	Herbert Halpert
57:33 - 57:36	Well, what do they do? Do they, how do they get it under the bar, the rail?	Herbert Halpert
57:41 - 57:43	Do they have to look back at it or do they just feel it?	Herbert Halpert
57:50 - 57:60	Well, uh, you were saying, you were explaining that there's different rhythms that they have. Are there any particular times when a faster on or a slower one would be used?	Herbert Halpert
58:31 - 58:32	Alright.	Herbert Halpert
0:00 - 0:40	Men singing	Unknown
1:02 - 2:60	Women singing	Unknown
3:04 - 5:40	Man singing	Unknown
5:59 - 8:38	Men singing	Unknown
8:44 - 10:26	Men singing	Unknown
11:26 - 11:37	Man singing with instruments	Unknown
12:51 - 13:02	Man singing with instruments	Unknown
13:45 - 13:57	Man and woman singing with instruments	Unknown
14:32 - 14:45	Man and woman singing with instruments	Unknown
15:50 - 17:59	Women singing	Unknown
18:07 - 20:25	Women singing	Unknown
20:33 - 23:25	Women singing	Unknown
24:10 - 24:14	Man singing with instruments	Unknown
24:33 - 24:37	Man singing with instruments	Unknown
24:45 - 24:49	Man singing with instruments	Unknown
28:01 - 31:06	Man singing	Unknown
31:12 - 32:50	Man singing	Unknown
33:01 - 35:40	Woman singing with ukulele	Unknown
35:50 - 37:28	Woman singing	Unknown
37:54 - 40:33	Woman singing	Unknown
40:41 - 41:28	Children singing and clapping	Unknown
41:33	Children singing and clapping	Unknown
42:45	Men singing	Unknown
10:46 - 11:26	Instruments playing	Instruments
11:37 - 12:51	Instruments playing	Instruments
13:02 - 13:10	Instruments playing	Instruments
13:22 - 13:45	Instruments playing	Instruments
13:57 - 14:32	Instruments playing	Instruments
14:45 - 15:30	Instruments playing	Instruments
23:33 - 24:10	Instruments playing	Instruments
24:14 - 24:33	Instruments playing	Instruments
24:37 - 24:45	Instruments playing	Instruments
24:49 - 25:09	Instruments playing	Instruments
25:20 - 26:45	Instruments playing	Instruments
26:48 - 27:47	Instruments playing	Instruments
45:30	My name is Zora Neal Hurston. I was born in Eatonville, FLorida. I'm 35 years old. This song that I'm going to sing is a railroad song that I found on a railroad gang near Miami and was song to me by Max Ford.	Zora Neale Hurston
45:52	That was in 1930.	Zora Neale Hurston
45:58	I was collecting folk material for Columbia University as part of the Barnard College, Columbia University.	Zora Neale Hurston
46:07	They call it Gonna see my long-haired babe and it's a railroad spiking song and the rhythm is kept with a spike and a hammer.	Zora Neale Hurston
46:23	Yes, sir.	Zora Neale Hurston
48:04	Let them hammers ring, boy.	Zora Neale Hurston
48:15	Uh, the men face each other with hammers and they call on each other; they're breasted, they stand breast to breast and one comes down and the other one comes down.	Zora Neale Hurston
48:24	Yes, one comes down [strike, strike]	Zora Neale Hurston
48:33	The minute that one goes down, the other is on the upstroke and comes right down behind it.	Zora Neale Hurston
48:38	They sing in line. It's a man who doesn't work at all. And he walks up and down and gives the rhythm for the people to work.	Zora Neale Hurston
48:47	A whole crew of men singing this one time and the railroad has to pay the singing liner or else the men won't work.	Zora Neale Hurston
49:01	Not all the time, because different ones have verses they want to put in themselves and so they jump in and after they start the song but the singing liner always starts it.	Zora Neale Hurston
49:19	Well, they often do that and then after that they [distortion] get in there but they [distortion]	Zora Neale Hurston
49:38	Uh, this song I got in Callahan, Florida, which is a railroad center in the northern part of Florida.	Zora Neale Hurston
49:49	I got this in 1935. I don't remember the man's name who sung it to me but I got it at Callahan. It's a railroad camp.	Zora Neale Hurston
49:59	This is not exactly a song. It's a chant for the men lining. You know a railroad rail weighs 900 pounds and the men have to take these lining bars and get it in shape to spike it down. And while they're doing that why they have a chant that, uh, and also some songs that they be used to, the rhythm to work it into place and then the boss hollers 'Bring 'em a hammer gang' and they start to spike it down. And this is a chant for lining the rail.	Zora Neale Hurston
50:56	They call it a lining bar.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:02	It's a 'hah'! Now you don't hear the lining bar because it's under the rail and they shove the rail with it.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:09	No, it's under it. You see, it's just like on this. It's a crow bar.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:22	Well, I've seen them put it between their legs this way and put it back and they get this, this splange under the rail, and then they 'heh, heh'. You know, like that.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:33	Pulling it backwards, they're moving it backwards.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:38	That's right. Yes.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:41	And all the men, you know because it's always straining and they 'heh'.	Zora Neale Hurston
51:52	Alright	Zora Neale Hurston
52:23	I got 'That Old Black Gal' is a spiking song that I got down there in Miami and was song by Max Ford the singing liner on this construction crew.	Zora Neale Hurston
52:35	Used for spiking down the rails.	Zora Neale Hurston
53:51	This song they called 'Shove it Over' and it's the lining rhythm pretty generally distributed all over Florida. It was sung to me by Charlie Jones on a railroad construction camp in Lakeland, Florida.	Zora Neale Hurston
54:06	Uh, I gathered that in '33, 1933.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:03 - 56:03	This is a lining rhythm.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:06 - 56:12	When they say Shacka-lacka-lacka like they are getting ready to pull back and when they say 'heh' they shove the rail over.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:16 - 56:17	Right a lot of rest in between.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:18 - 56:21	And a harder shove at the end. And they say 'heh', they all go.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:26 - 56:36	Yes, but someone was short and someone only just come to the mood of the liner. And the men work whatever song he sung, they work that rhythm.	Zora Neale Hurston
56:36 - 57:19	Uh, now when the men are lining, they put the rail down, and then of course the captain, he's crouched straddle of it and uh, looks down it so he can tell when it's lined up in exact line with the others. And if they carry it, well he'll say shove it over and if they carry it too far, he'll say send it back and when they get it exactly in line, he'll tell em 'join it ahead' but then they corrupted that to 'join ahead' and all of them say 'join ahead' for 'join it ahead'. And, uh, so, uh, this song is about a lining and the rhythm goes with, they put this lining bar, this long steel bar, crow bar, between their legs so they have greater purchase and pull back on it.	Zora Neale Hurston
57:22 - 57:25	Their back is to the rail.	Zora Neale Hurston
57:28 - 57:33	They're pulling up on the bar. They don't have to look at the rail because that's the captain's job to see when it's right.	Zora Neale Hurston
57:36 - 57:41	They just push the flange of this lining bar under the rail and then pull back on it.	Zora Neale Hurston
57:43 - 57:50	Oh, they can just feel it. Sometimes they look back, you know, but most of them, they just can feel it and they send it back on there.	Zora Neale Hurston
57:60 - 58:28	Well, it's different; it's not any particular time except just the feeling of the singing liner. Whatever song he starts. If it's a fast rhythm they work fast; if its's a slow one, well they work, you know, a little slower but they get just as much work done, it seems, somehow or another.	Zora Neale Hurston
58:28 - 58:31	ZNH singing low.	Zora Neale Hurston
58:32 - 58:51	Alright, this song I'm going to sing is a lining rhythm and I'm going to call it Mule on the Mount though you can start with any verse you want and give it a name and it's the most widely distributed work song in the United States and it has innumerable verses and whatnot about everything under the sun and it's a lining rhythm though they sometimes sing it just [cut off].	Zora Neale Hurston
46:27	ZNH sings 'Gonna See My Long-Haired Babe'	Zora Neale Hurston
50:29	ZNH chants 'Let's Shake It'	Zora Neale Hurston
51:57	ZNH chants 'Let's Shake It'	Zora Neale Hurston
52:38	ZNH chants 'That Old Black Gal'	Zora Neale Hurston
54:12	ZNH sings 'Shove it over'	Zora Neale Hurston