We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Hoedag Song (Lay That Hoedag Down)

from Warm Rain and Lightning by Red Hawkins

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

The song is written in the style of a southern chain-gang gospel chanty. This song is based on Red's experience as a young man planting trees in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. The hoedag is a tool similar to an adze, actually shaped and weighted like a railroad pick that has only the cutting blade and not the spike blade. The person planting trees loads up the human version of saddlebags full of saplings on a waist belt and heads out onto the plantation. To plant a tree, you take a step while swinging the hoedag, sink the blade into the earth, pull it back to open the hole, drop the sapling into the hole, step forward to close the hole with a boot heel, then step on into the next swing. If the terrain permits, this movement establishes a hypnotic rhythmic groove. The song tries to convey that groove.

credits

from Warm Rain and Lightning, released August 1, 2006

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Red Hawkins Saginaw, Michigan

contact / help

Contact Red Hawkins

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Red Hawkins, you may also like: