''Swing Dat Hammer'' is an album by

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, released by

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

(LPM/LSP-2194) in 1960. It is a collection of

chain gang A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was no ...

work songs A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. Definitions and ...

. The last cut is a collection of workmen conversations. At the

Grammy Awards of 1961 The 3rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on April 13, 1961, at Los Angeles and New York. They recognized musical accomplishments by the performers for the year 1960. Ray Charles won four awards and Bob Newhart and Henry Mancini each won three awards ...

''Swing Dat Hammer'' won the

Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording The Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording was awarded from 1960 to 1986. During this time the award had several minor name changes: *From 1960 to 1961 the award was known as Best Performance - Folk *From 1962 to 1967 it was awa ...

Track listing

#"Look Over Yonder" – 2:51 #"Bald Headed Woman" – 3:30 #"Grizzly Bear" – 3:27 #"Diamond Joe" (Belafonte) – 3:36 #"Here Rattler, Here" – 3:57 #"Another Man Done Gone" (

Vera Hall Adell Hall Ward, better known as Vera Hall (April 6, 1902 – January 29, 1964) was an American folk singer, born in Livingston, Alabama. Best known for her 1937 song "Trouble So Hard", she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame ...

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

John Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lo ...

Ruby Pickens Tartt Ruby Pickens Tartt (January 13, 1880 - September 29, 1974) was a folklorist, writer, and painter who is best known today for her work helping to preserve Southern black culture by collecting the life histories, stories, lore, and songs of former ...

) – 2:21 #"Swing Dat Hammer " – 4:38 #"Go Down, Old Hannah" – 3:47 #"Rocks and Gravel" – 4:10 #"Talkin' an' Signifyin' " – 5:08

Personnel

*Harry Belafonte – vocals *

The Belafonte Folk Singers The Belafonte Folk Singers (originally known as The Belafonte Singers) were a vocal group who were active from 1957 to 1965. They were named after singer Harry Belafonte, for whom they originally formed in order to serve as a backing group for reco ...

– vocals *Millard Thomas – guitar *

Robert De Cormier Robert Romeo De Cormier Jr. (January 7, 1922 – November 7, 2017), sometimes known as Robert Corman, was an American musical conductor, arranger, and director. He arranged music for many singers and groups, including Harry Belafonte and Peter, P ...

– conductor

Production notes

*Produced by Bob Bollard *Engineered by Bob Simpson

References

{{Authority control 1960 albums Harry Belafonte albums RCA Victor albums Albums conducted by Robert De Cormier