Musical traditions and recollections of African American railroad track laborers (AKA gandy dancers) whose occupational folk songs were once heard on railroads across the country. Gandy dancer is a term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks. Replacing ties by hand was back-breaking work and required synchronized movements. Work songs were used to coordinate the manual labor-- and maintain morale among workers. The work was extremely difficult and the pay was low
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Musical traditions and recollections of African American railroad track laborers (AKA gandy dancers) whose occupational folk songs were once heard on railroads across the country. Gandy dancer is a term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks. Replacing ties by hand was back-breaking work and required synchronized movements. Work songs were used to coordinate the manual labor-- and maintain morale among workers. The work was extremely difficult and the pay was low
52K viewsMay 11, 2023
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