Work Chants

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En provenance du cours de The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The American South: Its Stories, Music, and Art

256 notes

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The American South: Its Stories, Music, and Art

256 notes

From small farms to urban neighborhoods, from the region itself to the more distant worlds of the southern diaspora, we discover the stories, music, and art of the American South.

À partir de la leçon

Roots Music

Exploring Southern music and its roots in work chants, fife and drum, and one-strand on the wall music.

One-Strand on the Wall4:43

Country Roots7:54

Fife and Drum4:34

Sacred Harp3:33

"Our Father"2:43

Work Chants5:49

Rencontrer les enseignants

Dr. William Ferris
Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History; Senior Associate Director of CSAS; Adjunct Professor in the Curriculum in Folklore
Department of History

[MUSIC]

The work chant is a very important link between the blues and Africa.

African work chants are used where heavy work is being done,

just as they are used in the American South.

They were used during slavery and they continue to be used today, to coordinate

heavy labor where multiple workers are chopping the same log with axes.

Or moving railroad ties and rails to avoid injury,

to coordinate the work the chant helps you with music.

The work chant is also a way of communicating protest as Bruce Jackson,

a folklorist, has written in his book, Wake Up, Dead Man.

In a work chant, a singer could

talk to the boss and call him all manner of things without being injured,

because it was done through music.

And, the work chant then becomes the way of coordinating work, but

also of communicating.

And, in a protected way, the work chant allows for protest to be expressed.

I was in Parchman Penitentiary, a state penitentiary

in the Mississippi Delta in the 60s and the early 70s, and

filmed work chants being sung as men were chopping wood.

And they coordinated that work using the music, and

there is a chanter who calls, and the workers respond to call.

And response being very important in black music in the South.

And James Blood Shelby, one of the inmates, talked to me about how he learned

to sing work chants from older singers who were there before him.

And today he calls, as we will see in the film, the chant,

and the axes fall together thanks to that music.

>> When I first came here it was 1934, November the 5th.

Parchman.

Parchman.

It was pretty rough then.

You had to go ahead well, whatever he had you doing, you had to run with it.

>> I rolled so hard and tell him go get it done,

I couldn't, couldn't eat with a spoon or nothing,

just shake off, been so nervous, you know, but I made it.

I made it through all right.

As far as I know, they doing okay, all but my wife.

She, me and her not together now.

She, when I got in trouble, she went on up the country.

Where she at, I don't know.

I try to keep her from rolling across my mind.

I just get off to myself, and just try to forget it.

Sometimes I get my old shoeshine box here,

shine somebody's shoes, make me 30, 40 cents, and I'm all right,

I know that I'll get back up on my feet and get me those cigarettes and things.

So I'm making it pretty good.

Don't have no kid comin'.

[MUSIC]

Well when you're working and you're singing,

it makes you get your mind off of everything else and get it on your work.

Older fella was here before I got here.

And I heard him sing them so I just started helping him sing them.

[MUSIC]

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