Gandy Dancers (1973)

About the Film

This remarkable film features field recordings of work chants of Gandy Dancers including aligning songs and chants to knock out slack in the rail. The accompanying visual shows men working with cross ties, aligning the track, and spiking. The film focuses on the changes brought about by mechanization of railroad building.

Jack Schrader shot this film with a 16mm Bolex camera without sync sound. It is part of a 1973 series of films created by Schrader and Folklorist Thomas Burton. These films are streamed on Folkstreams and the 16mm prints are in the Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University.