Nine Pound Hammer
by Merle Travis
"I first heard
a version of this song in about 1939 from Texas Ruby. It
was on a bus going back to Cincinnati where we were both
working at the Boone County Jamboree. I wrote the verse
about Harlan and Hazard, which are coal towns in East
Kentucky, and a lot of people think I'm from around
there. It seems I've spent most of my life telling
people I'm from the other end of the state." —Merle
Travis
"Merle Travis' pulsating 'Nine Pound Hammer' has become
the standard hammer song in recent country music and
bluegrass repertoires. The fragment he earned in 1939
was itself part of a long complex originally used by
black workers in the post-Civil War South. Tunnel men,
railroad right-of-way laborers (tie tampers, track
liners, spike drivers), mule-skinners, wheelbarrow
haulers, and road builders all developed functional
chants to pace their work and husband their strength. In
time, various 'hammer' and 'roll' phrases and melodies
coalesced into the folksong heard by Travis and extended
by him to the coal mining industry."
—Archie Green, John Edwards Memorial Foundation
Nine Pound Hammer
This nine pound hammer is a little too heavy
For my size, honey, for my size
I'm a-goin' on the mountain, gonna see my baby
But I ain't comin' back, oh, well, I ain't comin' back.
Roll on, buddy, don't you roll so slow
How can I roll when the wheels won't go?
Roll on buddy, pull a load of coal
How can I pull when the wheels won't go?
It's a long way to Harlan, it's a long way to Hazard
Just to get a little brew, just to get a little brew
When I'm long gone, you can make my tombstone
Out of number nine coal, out of number nine coal.
