My Dollar and a Half a Day (Lowlands) [68-70] (63-64)

First, I've had a cold so sorry for the even more than usually scraggly performance...

In this version of "Lowlands Away," while the chorus of the sentimental Celtic shore-song ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUc-FQEQSTM
...is retained, the words to the solo couplets are totally replaced with the typical Blues-like lyrics that characterize many a chantey originating in the American South. They smack heavily of the trade of the "cotton screwers," "screwmen," "cotton jammers," or "hoosiers"—a type of stevedore that specialized in forcing bales of cotton into the holds of ships by the means of giant jackscrews. This heaviest of labors was said to be more intensive than that of a sailor, however it seems the pay was better, too.

This languid, pretty much un-metered capstan chantey would, like "Shenandoah," come in when the heaving of the capstan was very slow (like when trying to break the anchor free of the mud). Although it is not meant to tell a narrative, still it gets a bit confusing what perspective it is coming from; perhaps the versions given by Hugill are just a sample mish-mash of possibilities. A Black man's labors are mentioned as lower paying than a White man's. At the same time, a matlow's (French sailor's) pay is lamented as bad. A sailor's pay is compared unfavorably to any shore worker, and the draw to screwing cotton is its higher pay. What makes it more confusing are the different dollar amounts. Hugill's chorus has "MY dollar and a half a day," while Doerflinger's (talen from the singing of older sailor Richard Maitland) has "FIVE dollars and a half a day." Doerflinger seems to think that English and Irish sailors brought the original Lowlands with them, then, whist working as stevedores in the Gulf port cotton trade, it was shaped into this form. I wonder if it was Blacks who picked up the theme and modified it, or if the European sailors imitated Black spiritual style, OR (as we usually say, to be safe) it was the shared creation of all engaged in that hard business.

Since the screwing cotton aspect of sea chantey history figures so significantly in Stan Hugill's exposition, I want to quote at length from a passage on the subject which gives a clear idea of what screwing cotton is as well as evidence to confirm its importance. It comes from Charles Nordhoff's The Mechant Vessel (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1895):

"We had scarcely gotten all things in proper trim, before a lighter-load of cotton came down, and with it a stevedore and several gangs of the screw men, whose business it is to load cotton-ships..."
*...CONTINUED at the following link, due to space restrictions....*
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~hcritz/Hoosier.htm

See the whole "Shanties from the Seven Seas" project, here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=58B55DD66F22060C

Category:

Music

Tags:

• screwing
• cotton
• screwmen
• hoosiers
• worksong
• chantey
• shanty
• lowlands
• Mobile
• Galveston

[hultonclint]

Sounds good, I'll look forward to it. and thanks!

[shantytraad]

We're at Hull Maritime Festival early September. We'll see what we can do. Thanks for your vids. They are a brilliant resouce and you know so much about the music. We're just learning, but we love to perform it.

[hultonclint]

Cool!

Hey, I hope you guys post some more vids soon. please? :)

[shantytraad]

Oooh here it is!!!

Fanx

Doxy