Creator

Subject

Geographic Term

Music Tracks

Description

Three audio cassette recordings. Mealing and Wright received NEA National Heritage Fellowships in 1996. The Gandy Dancers (Mealing, Jones, Vinson, Brown, and Wright) sing while demonstrating track lining and spike driving. Some of the speech his inaudible when the performers walk away from the microphone.
On C93-10, Wright tells a story about going to church and drinking coffee, then introduces the Gandy Dancers. He emphasizes the importance of mathematics, chemistry and physics in railway work. He explains the origin of the term "gandy dancer" and describes the role of the "callers" to motivate the workers through song and keep them focused. He demonstrates and explains the tools necessary for railway work, as well as the differences between American and European track gauges. He describes the various challenges of railway work, including calculating the mathematics necessary to level the track on curves. Mealing leads the Gandy Dancers in "Good Evening Everybody." Wright describes the importance of railroads to American culture, as well as the importance of women to railroad men.
On C93-11, Wright explains the change in decorum of railway workers "in the cut," as opposed to their behavior around women and children. Wright leads "Mary Had a Little Lamb." He then explains the importance of the "dead-eye" in driving spikes, and emphasizes the human element of railway work. The Gandy Dancers perform a number of track-lining songs (including one about the Southern Railway, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad) and demonstrate spike driving. Wright discusses how crews could be competitive and used songs to antagonize each other. He tells a story about how his mother motivated him to pursue an education, and one about working for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1949.
On C93-12a, the Gandy Dancers perform "We'll Understand It Better By and By" as their last song. This recording represents the first portion of tape C93-12.