Peg and Awl by Carolina Tar Heels [Anthology Revisited - Song 12]
TL;DR -- It's a shoemaking revolution! Lyrics differ from reality. Abnormally configured string ensemble includes previously featured Anthology performer, human bird, and a man named Doctor.
Welcome to the twelfth installment of “Anthology Revisited”, our song-by-song journey through the Anthology of American Folk Music, the seminal 1952 collection assembled by Harry Smith and released on Folkways Records.
This week, we’re examining “Peg and Awl”, as performed on October 14, 1928 by Carolina Tar Heels in the Atlanta, Georgia studios of Victor Records.
To me, this is one of the great folk recordings, and I’m excited to discuss it. Though the song’s events (allegedly) take place in the early 19th century, the central message remains highly relevant today as an astute observation of human behavior.
“Peg and Awl” is an oddity in several different ways. It has peculiar instrumentation (2 guitars and a banjo), when compared to other string bands. It’s the first song since “The Butcher’s Boy” (song 7) that isn’t about courtship, and the first song since “Fatal Flower Garden” (song 2 in the set), that doesn’t mention any form of romantic entanglement (courtship, marriage, former lovers, etc.).
“Peg and Awl” doesn’t touch on interpersonal relationships, but it shares a theme of life on the job with “A Lazy Farmer Boy”, and has other connections that we’ll explore later in this article. Along the way, we’ll explore pegs, awls, and the newfangled contraption about which the Carolina Tar Heels sang.
But before we get to any of that, let’s take a look at Harry Smith’s headline for the song.
TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT HITS SHOE INDUSTRY IN THE YEAR OF 18 AND 4.
Harry gave us some exceptional headlines in this particular volume of the Anthology. There are gems to the other two volumes, but in this first volume Ballads, he does an amazing job of stripping the narratives of their emotional tension to deliver concise descriptions of the ballads. For “Peg and Awl”, he gives us the detached, precise breakdown of the what, where, and when of the song.
Even though Harry’s headline tethers the song to an era, it simultaneously speaks to the song’s timelessness with the words “Technological unemployment”. Consider this for a moment. The Anthology of American Folk Music was assembled in 1952, this recording was made in 1928, and the song purports to be about events from 1804. Yet, as I write this in 2025, (almost 75 years after Harry Smith wrote his liner notes), the concept of “technological unemployment” is still with us, but it has taken on a different meaning than it had in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2025, artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the employment landscape across multiple sectors, and if my words are read by someone in the year 2100, I’m certain that the words “technological unemployment” will have taken on an entirely different meaning than they have in my era. This is the nature of progress, and it’s also proof of this song’s timelessness. We’ll touch on this again later, but this timelessness is, to me at least, one key to the song’s charm.
With those introductory notes out of the way, let’s give the song a listen. Here’s “Peg and Awl” as performed on October 14, 1928 in Atlanta, GA by the Carolina Tar Heels.
Lyrics
In the days of eighteen and one
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and one
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and one
Peggin' shoes is all I done.
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.In the days of eighteen and two
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and two
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and two
Peggin' shoes is all I do.
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.In the days of eighteen and three
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and three
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and three
Peggin' shoes is all you'd see.
Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.In the days of eighteen and four
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and four
Peg and awl.
In the days of eighteen and four
I said I'd peg them shoes no more.
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.They've invented a new machine
Peg and awl.
They've invented a new machine
Peg and awl.
They've invented a new machine
Prettiest little thing you ever seen.
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.Make one hundred pair to my one
Peg and awl.
Make one hundred pair to my one
Peg and awl.
Make one hundred pair to my one
Peggin' shoes it ain't no fun.
Throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.Some shoemaker.
The Song
As Smith noted in the original liner notes, there are no preceding texts to examine here. This song wasn’t written in the early 1800’s, and, as you’ll soon learn, the events described didn’t take place between 1801 and 1804. But before we set the record straight, let’s figure out exactly what is going on here.
Lyrically, this song spends three verses describing a shoemaker’s day to day life at work. Day in, day out, peg and awl. Every day but Sunday, peg and awl. 1801, peg and awl. 1802, peg and awl. 1803, peg and awl. Then, all of a sudden, in 1804 a machine comes on the scene and renders the peg and awl obsolete.
In a nutshell, that’s what the song is saying… But what does it mean?
The Peg and the Awl(s)
To get to the heart of this song, we need to examine the tools after which the song was named. I know nothing about shoemaking, but according to people who know have such knowledge, pegs are small wooden nails that are hammered into place to hold parts of a shoe together. An awl is a small tool with a pointed tip that’s used to puncture holes into a material, and, if necessary, expand the size of the hole without making cuts to the material. In most professions, the awl is a simple tool, but in shoemaking, the awl serves multiple purposes. As such, a proper cordwainer’s toolkit would contain several awls, each designed for a specific task. There’s an inseaming awl, a sewing awl, a clicking awl, a hooked awl, and a pegging awl, just to name a few.
For greater clarification, here are a couple of images (and captions) from The Renaissance Artisan Project that show the wrong awls and the right awls for the jobs.
The wrong tools: From the top, A large scratch awl, a small scratch awl, and a bookbinding awl. These are not appropriate tools for sewing leather and will do more harm than good.
The correct tools: (from the top), an 1800’s inseaming awl, a modern sewing awl with interchangeable blades, and another 1800’s fine closing awl. Note their shape and how fine/sharp they are. These will not mangle your leather. Find them and use them.
“They’ve invented a new machine”
Now that we know the tools for which the song was named, let’s discuss this game changing machine that came about in 1804 to replace the aforementioned tools.
This machine’s emergence is well documented, but the timing of its arrival doesn’t align with the years mentioned in the song. In fact, the magical shoemaking machine described in the song wasn’t one single invention. It was the result of an iterative evolution, with successive inventions and improvements on existing inventions streamlining specific steps of the shoemaking process until near-automation was finally achieved, and productivity soared to previously unimaginable levels.
Throughout the 19th century, shoemaking slowly ceased to be the work of skilled craftsmen, and became an industrialized process that combined the efforts of many workers. In the new industrialized shoemaking world, each worker completed a singular part of the shoemaking process, then passed the shoes-in-progress to the next worker who would do their part. That worker would complete their work and pass the shoes along to the next worker. The process would repeat until the shoes were completed.
The first steps towards the mechanization of shoemaking took place in 1812 when Marc Brunel developed equipment to automatically fasten soles to shoes to make cheap boots for the British Army who were fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. The innovation was helpful, but more importantly, his process introduced the division of labor to the shoemaking process.
Brunel’s equipment and process were abandoned once the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, because labor was cheaper and the demands of the war no longer necessitated the rapid production of boots. But the concept of dividing labor among multiple workers was soon revived and expanded upon as new technologies emerged.
In 1846, Elias Howe introduced the sewing machine, and the march towards industrialized shoemaking began in earnest. In 1853 a process for riveting soles on to shoes was introduced by Tomas Crick of Leicester, England. Later in the decade, Crick went on to invent steam powered rolling machines for hardening leather, along with cutting machines. These inventions streamlined several steps in the shoemaking process. In 1856, Lyman Blake’s shoe stitching machine, a variant of the sewing machine, emerged. The machine was continually improved upon until it was perfected around 1864, and the McKay stitching machine (named for Blake’s business partner) was rapidly adopted by New England shoe factories.
The final transformational point in the mechanization and automation of shoemaking occurred in 1883 when the shoe-lasting machine was introduced. This machine automated the final part of the process, which involved shaping the outside of the shoe and attaching it to the sole, and was patented by Jan Ernst Matzeliger. With the shoe-lasting machine, the daily output of shoes jumped from 50 pairs a day to 700 pairs a day.
That’s the rough story, but the details are far more nuanced than the broad brushed word picture I provided. At this point, the only thing left to ponder is why the lyrics were “in the year of eighteen and one”, instead of the more accurate “in eighteen and eighty one”. Not to be dismissive, I’m pretty sure this lyrical misalignment was simple artistic license. That’s the only logical option I can see, and until conclusive proof to the contrary comes along, that’s the only explanation I can offer.
The Peculiar Reaction
I want to look at another component of the song here. This is a song about life on the job. More specifically, it’s about the impact of technological advancements on the workplace.
American folk music is rife with songs that focus on technological advancements in the workplace and how these advances impact workers. In most cases, the songs explore the anxiety and despair of the workers in the face of technological innovation. Take, for instance, the John Henry ballads, which are all about one man’s battle against the steam drill. These ballads explore John Henry’s emotions, motivations, and actions as he fights to remain relevant in a technologically advancing world.
That’s not what we’ve got here. “Peg and Awl” contains none of the pathos endemic to the John Henry ballads. In fact, the characters in this song express the opposite of anxiety and despair. These folks are legitimately excited to see these advances come into being. While Smith's headline references “technological unemployment”, the song itself contains none of the anger, despair, frustration, or anxiety that one would expect from a song about technological unemployment. Instead, these folks seem in awe of this machine.
My take is that the song reflects the moment in the immediate wake of one’s first brush with revolutionary technology. The events occur entirely within the moment of awe, wherein the workers are so stunned by what they are seeing that they fail to understand the larger implications of the machine’s introduction. It’s that moment of relief, the taking comfort in the belief that a machine has come around to simplify the grueling, tedious parts of one’s job. For the three glorious minutes of this song, we can bask in the fleeting delight that one feels when realizing that their job has been made easier.
What we don’t see is the next moment, when the workers recognize that the machine that rendered the peg and awl obsolete, also rendered their jobs obsolete as well.
The Performance
This performance is a delight from start to finish. From the gate, it’s clear that we’ve got something different on our hands. It’s obviously a string band, but this time we have two guitars and a banjo, with nary a fiddle to be found. This isn’t a band configuration that we’ve encountered before, and this lack of fiddle makes the Carolina Tar Heels an anomaly among string bands.
Soon after the two guitars and a banjo start the song, Garley Foster’s harmonica comes wailing on top of this rhythmic bed. After that wakeup call of an introduction, the fun begins as Dock Walsh steps to the microphone and sings “In the days of 18 and 1”, to which Clarence Ashley replies “Peg and awl”.
The pair repeat the first two lines, then Walsh drops a longer line
“In the days of eighteen and one, peggin' shoes is all I done.”
To which Ashley replies “Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.”
The second and third verses repeat the structure of the first verse, changing years and switching up the verbs to retain the rhyme scheme, so pegging shows is “all you do” in “eighteen and two”, and “all you see” in “eighteen and three”.
The fourth verse brings the twist. The call and response structure remains in place, as Walsh twice tells us the year (18 and 4), to which Ashley responds “Peg and awl” each time. Then, it shifts when Walsh sings “I said I’d peg those shoes no more” and Ashley responds with “throw away my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl.”
Verse five explains that there’s a new machine, and verse six tells us that this machine will dramatically increase shoe production. A final bit of commentary comes after the final verse with the words “Some shoemaker…”
Is this “Some shoemaker…” yet another declaration of awe, or is it something different? To my ear, this final line suggests that our singer is still stunned by the technological marvel, but may be starting to recognize the machine’s potential implications upon his employment.
Musically speaking, this is an incredible performance. All three men know their roles and execute them splendidly. The guitars work together to provide a solid rhythm with some nice licks and turnarounds thrown in to spice up the sound. The banjo and harmonica parts are perfectly placed and beautifully executed. Once more, I must give a special nod to that harmonica segment that comes wailing in at the very beginning… it’s utterly glorious.
The Performers
NOTE: The Carolina Tar Heels appear twice on the Anthology, and I’m splitting their biographical information across the two pieces. In this article, we’ll examine the Carolina Tar Heels from their inception through their 1932 recording sessions, and include the discography with links to the available recordings. When we get to song 27, “Got the Farm Land Blues”, we’ll look at what happened to the band members after their 1932 sessions, and include the grave site photos that usually accompany these articles. Please note that Clarence Ashley’s life has already been covered in detail, in “The House Carpenter”, Song 3 of this series.
Born on July 23, 1901 in Lewis Fork, Wilkes County, North Carolina, Doctor “Dock” Coble Walsh was one of eight children, and his first name really was Doctor. In 1925, while working as a schoolteacher, Walsh attempted to contact both the Okeh and Columbia recording companies in Atlanta to see if he could get on record. He got no response.
Unsatisfied with the lack of response, Walsh, the self-proclaimed “Banjo King of the Carolinas”, went to Atlanta with the hopes of becoming a recording artist. He didn’t meet with instant success, and had to pick cotton and play on street corners for a while. But eventually, his unique style, which included putting pennies under the banjo’s bridge and using a knife edge to play slide on the banjo, impressed the folks at Victor enough to earn him a recording session.
In his first session on October 3, 1925, Walsh recorded four sides on which he sang and accompanied himself on banjo (The East Bound Train, The Bull Dog Down in Sunny Tennessee, Educated Man, and I’m Free at Last). It’s said that Walsh walked all the way back to Wilkes County, NC (about 300 miles) after his successful recording session. A little over six months later, on April 17, 1926, Walsh returned to the Atlanta studios of Columbia records to record six sides (Travelling Man, Knocking on the Hen House Door, Lay Down Baby (unissued), In the Pines, We Courted in the Rain, and Going Back to Jericho).
Later that year, while Dock Walsh was in Gaston County, NC, playing banjo and harmonica (wearing a harmonica rack around his neck), a listener wanted to introduce him to another harmonica player named Gwin Foster who was born on Christmas Day, 1903 in Caldwell County, NC, and worked in a Dallas, NC mill. In addition to being a harmonica player, Foster also played guitar and sang.
(NOTE: Gwin Foster’s name often appears as Gwen or Gwyn, but Gwin is the spelling that appears on his tombstone, and is the spelling that I will use throughout this series.)
Soon after they met, Dock Walsh and Gwin Foster, together with Dave Fletcher and Floyd Williams, (a couple of other local musicians), formed the Four Yellowjackets. The band was heard by a Victor talent scout in North Carolina who arranged for them to record in Atlanta. When the quartet got to the Atlanta studio, Ralph Peer wasn’t interested in recording the Four Yellowjackets. Peer was, however, interested in recording Gwin Foster and Dock Walsh, and he recorded the pair performing four songs (listed in the discography below), and dubbed them the Carolina Tar Heels.
Harry Smith’s liner notes indicate that the Carolina Tar Heels consisted of Thomas Ashley (guitar), Dock Walsh (banjo), and Gwin Foster (guitar and harmonica). That’s somewhat accurate, but not entirely. In addition to Gwin Foster, the band had another guitar and harmonica player named Garley Foster (no relation to Gwin), who would perform in Gwin’s stead if he wasn’t available.
This seemed to have occurred with some regularly, and would explain why the photo below shows the Carolina Tar Heels as Clarence Ashley, Dock Walsh, and Gwin Foster, even though Garley Foster played guitar and harmonica on all of the Carolina Tar Heels recordings on which Ashley appeared.
Discography
1927
The Carolina Tar Heels had three recording sessions in 1927. During these sessions, the band was made up of Dock Walsh on banjo and Gwin Foster on guitar and harmonica, and they recorded 10 sides. Here’s the session information for that year:
2/19/1927 - Victor studios - Atlanta, Georgia
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo, vocal) and Gwin Foster (guitar, harmonica, vocal), session recorded by Ralph Peer. Walsh and Foster both sing on all tracks.
8/11/1927 - Victor studios - Charlotte, North Carolina
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo, vocal) and Gwin Foster (guitar, harmonica, (all tracks), vocal (tracks 2 &3), session recorded by Ralph Peer
Good-bye, My Bonnie, Good-bye (Walsh - vocals)
The Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee (Foster - vocals)
Shanghai in China (Foster - vocals)
8/15/1927 - Victor studios - Charlotte, North Carolina
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo, (all tracks), vocal (tracks 1 and 3)) and Gwin Foster (guitar, harmonica, (all tracks), vocal (tracks 2 &3), session recorded by Ralph Peer
My Mamma Scolds Me for Flirting (Walsh - vocals)
I Love my Mountain Home (Foster - vocals)
When the Good Lord Sets You Free (Foster - vocals)
1928
The Carolina Tar Heels returned to the studio in 1928 for two sessions with an expanded lineup. The 1928 version of the Carolina Tar Heels was a trio composed of Dock Walsh on banjo, Clarence Ashley on guitar, and Garley Foster (born January 10. 1905 in Wilkes County, NC, and no relation to Gwin Foster) on guitar and harmonica. During those two sessions, they recorded 8 sides.
10/11/1928 - Victor studios - Atlanta, Georgia
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo), Garley Foster (guitar and harmonica), Clarence Ashley (guitar)
There's a Man Goin' Around Takin' Names (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
I Don't Like the Blues No How (Walsh - vocals)
Lay Down Baby, Take Your Rest (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
Can't You Remember When Your Heart Was Mine? (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
10/14/1928 - Victor studios - Atlanta, Georgia
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo), Garley Foster (guitar), Clarence Ashley (guitar)
Roll on, Boys (Ashley - vocals)
You Are a Little Too Small (Ashley - vocals)
Peg and Awl (Walsh and Ashley - vocals)
I'll Be Washed (Walsh and Ashley - vocals)
1929
In 1929, the Carolina Tar Heels had two sessions, in which they recorded 8 sides. The personnel for 1929 was the same as 1928.
4/3/1929 - Victor studios - Camden, New Jersey
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo), Garley Foster (guitar and harmonica), Clarence Ashley (guitar)
My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (Foster, vocals and whistling, Ashley and Walsh, vocals)
Hand in Hand We Have Walked Along Together (Walsh - vocals)
The Train's Done Left Me (Ashley - vocals)
Who's Gonna Kiss Your Lips, Dear Darling? (Foster and Walsh - vocals)
Oh, How I Hate It (Walsh - vocals)
Rude and Rambling Man (Ashley - vocals)
Somebody's Tall and Handsome (Foster and Walsh - vocals)
4/4/1929 - Victor studios - Camden, New Jersey
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo), Garley Foster (guitar and harmonica), Clarence Ashley (guitar)
The Old Gray Goose (Ashley and Walsh - vocals)
1930
In 1929, Clarence Ashley left the band, and the Carolina Tar Heels were once again a two-piece band, this time, consisting of Dock Walsh and Garley Foster. In their lone 1930 session, the duo recorded 6 sides. A poster blank from the period refers to Garley Foster as “The Human Bird”. This was due to his uncanny skill as a whistler, and his ability to mimic the bird calls. (For an excellent example of Garley Foster’s whistling, check out the opening of “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains” from the 4/3/1928 session. It’s something else.)
11/19/1930 - - Victor studios - Memphis, Tennessee
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo), Garley Foster (guitar and harmonica), session recorded by Ralph Peer
Your Low Down Dirty Ways (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
Back to Mexico (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
The Hen House Door is Locked (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
Farm Girl blues (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
Got the Farm Land Blues (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
Washing Mama's Dishes (Walsh and Foster - vocals)
IMAGE SOURCE: https://www.wirz.de/music/walshdoc/grafik/ad4.jpg
1932
Before the Tar Heels’ 1932 sessions, another band called the Carolina Tar Heels was led by Claude Davis (and included Hoke Rice and Curly Fox at some point) had appeared on WSB radio in Atlanta. Claude Davis’ Carolina Tar Heels never made any recordings, but when Walsh and Gwin Foster went to record in Atlanta in 1932, they recorded as the “Original Carolina Tar Heels” to clearly differentiate themselves from Claude Davis and company. Unfortunately, I could find no recordings from this session online.
2/25/1932 - Egleston Auditorium - Atlanta, Georgia (for Victor records)
PERSONNEL: Dock Walsh (banjo, vocal) and Gwin Foster (guitar, harmonica, vocal), session recorded by Ralph Peer
Times Ain't Like They Used to Be (Walsh and Foster - vocals, credited to Original Carolina Tar Heels on label)
Why Should I Care (Walsh and Foster - vocals, credited to Original Carolina Tar Heels in Victor ledgers)
She Shook It on the Corner (Walsh and Foster - vocals, credited to Original Carolina Tar Heels in Victor ledgers)
Nobody cares if I'm blue (Walsh and Foster - vocals, credited to Original Carolina Tar Heels in Victor ledgers)
Although the Carolina Tar Heels final recording session took place in 1932, Gwin Foster and Clarence Ashley, continued to perform and record together. In 1933, the pair recorded the first version of “Rising Sun Blues”, known to modern listeners as “House of the Rising Sun”. We’ve already covered Clarence Ashley’s life back in “The House Carpenter”, and we’ll explore the further adventures of Dock Walsh, Garley Foster, and Gwin Foster when we get to “Got the Farm Land Blues” song 27 in the Anthology.
Connections
Thematically, this is our second consecutive song about life on the job, and there’s a subtle connection between the two that I’ve noticed while writing this piece. It’s a little awkward and may be meaningless, but I might as well share it.
“A Lazy Farmer Boy” is about a guy who does nothing, and pays a price for his inaction. “Peg and Awl” is about technological innovations in the shoemaking industry that would render certain workers obsolete. The workers in “Peg and Awl” ultimately face the consequence of technological unemployment, but they were merely victims of progress. They didn’t actually do anything to warrant the loss of their jobs.
In this way, both songs are about people who did nothing and had to pay a price. Granted, these are two different kinds of doing nothing; the lazy farmer boy’s willful inaction and the shoemakers’ powerlessness to act against technological progress are certainly not the same, but in both cases, they deal with consequences. I’ll confess that this is a rough connection, and one that Smith may not have intentionally considered, but it’s there just the same.
Now, what other, less outlandish connections do we have here?
“Peg and Awl” is the second consecutive song credited to performers from North Carolina. (If Buster Carter had actually performed on our previous track, we could say it was the 3rd song to feature performers from the Tarheel State, but since Preston Young and Posey Rorer were actually Virginians, I have to say “credited to performers from North Carolina”).
It’s the fourth consecutive string ensemble performance, and the first not to feature a fiddle. (NOTE: I realize that “Fatal Flower Garden” consists of two string instruments (the guitar and steel guitar), but it’s not what we’d call a “string ensemble” or a “string band”. String bands contain more traditional instruments (guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, autoharps, etc.). “Fatal Flower Garden”, with its use of the steel guitar, is more of a novelty piece. So, even though the song is performed on two stringed instruments, it falls outside of what we’d consider traditional string band territory).
Clarence Ashley is a connection unto himself, and he is the first performer on the Anthology to appear as a solo artist and as part of an ensemble. Gwin Foster is sort of an ancillary connection as well, as he recorded with Ashley after the breakup of the Carolina Tar Heels.
Lastly, we have the Ralph Peer connection. As discussed in the 10th installment of this series, Uncle Eck Dunford’s “Old Shoes and Leggins” was recorded by Peer during his legendary Bristol Sessions. “Peg and Awl” was also recorded by Peer, but a year later in Atlanta. Ralph Peer’s name will continue to appear throughout this series, and once we get to song 67 “Single Girl, Married Girl”, by the Carter Family, we will explore Peer’s influence on and contributions to American music in detail.
Other Interpretations
Discography
Kelly Harrell - Peg and Awl - This 1925 recording is a solo performance by Kelly Harrell, whom we’ll get to know better in later editions of Anthology Revisited. It’s interesting to hear it performed by just one person. Harrell does a fine job, but I see why Smith chose the Carolina Tar Heels recording.
Further Interpretations
Pete Seeger - Peg and Awl - The great Pete Seeger recorded this song, but that’s not a real surprise because Pete Seeger recorded versions of all the cool songs. If you really need another reason to give it a listen, Seeger does some spectacular banjo work on this one.
Freedy Johnston - Peg and Awl - this 2007 version of “Peg and Awl” is mighty fine to my ear. It’s still a single vocalist, so there’s no vocal call and response, but it’s got rich instrumentation and is a truly beautiful take on the song.
Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley - Peg and Awl - How could I not include this? It’s got Clarence Ashley AND Doc Watson (an artist for whom I have tremendous admiration). The call and response vocal is here, and is made a touch sweeter by both vocalists singing the responses. This is some must-listen stuff right here.
J.E. Mainer - Hand Me Down My Peg and Awl - Mainer was an old time fiddler who came into prominence in 1933 when he and his band “J.E. Mainer and his Crazy Mountaineers” appeared on Charlotte’s WBT radio and other radio stations in the Carolinas. In 1935, Mainer and company got a recording contract, and went on to lay down a whole bunch of sides. Although Mainer stopped performing for a period during World War II, he resumed recording later in the 40’s, and continued recording well into the 1960’s, including this track, which was cut in 1967.
Conclusion
In case you didn’t get it earlier, I love this record. It never fails to put a smile on my face. The musicianship is superb, the musical interplay is delightful, and don’t even get me started on the awesome call and response vocals. It is musical perfection at 78 RPM.
While the song brings me great joy, I want to close this article with a note about the song’s perpetual relevance, which I fear will add an unfortunate tinge of darkness to my otherwise mostly sunny analysis. This isn’t just a cute song that describes the events in the shoemaking industry. It’s a song about the inevitable forward motion of progress, and how people can be so blinded by technology that they fail to the downsides of such innovations.
As I write this in early June 2025, advances in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming industries throughout the world. At this very moment, AI tools exist that could, in theory, do what I’m doing, albeit without the dedication to factual accuracy, seemingly random sidebars, and quirky personal observations that I bring to the table.
Like the magical shoemaking machine, AI has breathtaking flashiness, and in this way, AI is the same as the machine discussed in this song. Not surprisingly, the reactions of some modern workers to AI are analogous to those of the workers in the song, who view innovation with wonder and amazement while remaining oblivious to the potential threats posed by the technology. I’m not picking on AI here. I’m merely pointing out that our initial reactions to groundbreaking technologies are often a bit shortsighted.
And with that, we’ve come to the end of this fun ride through one of my favorite songs. I do hope you’ve gotten something out of the excursion, and hope you’ll join me for the next installment of Anthology Revisited, when we examine song number 13, “Omie Wise” by G.B. Grayson, a tune that revives at least one theme from previous songs in the set, but I’ll say no more on the matter until next week.
Finally, as always, I must close by saying that I didn’t come up with any of this information on my own. I consulted many sources when writing this piece, and I am only following in the footsteps of many other researchers and fans of this music. If you’d like to learn more about any of the topics discussed here, the sources I used are below and should be great springboards for your own research.
Sources
Footwear of the Middle Ages - Glossary of Footwear Terminology A,
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005
I. Marc Carlson.
Archived January 20, 2020 from http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/RESEARCH/GLOSSARY/bdefa.htm
Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20200120130036/http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/RESEARCH/GLOSSARY/bdefa.htm on May 30, 2025
Awls for Shoemaking
https://www.shoemakingcoursesonline.com/shoe-making-supplies/awls-for-shoemaking/
Cordwhatnow? A layman’s guide to shoemaking tools and terms - Renaissance Artisan
Scott Perkins - January 19, 2014
https://renaissanceartisan.com/2014/01/19/cordwhatnow-a-laymans-guide-to-shoemaking-tools-and-terms/
Shoemaking - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoemaking
Jan Ernst Matzeliger | National Inventors Hall of Fame® Inductee
https://www.invent.org/inductees/jan-ernst-matzeliger
Union Song - Peg and Awl
https://web.archive.org/web/20221218001520/http://unionsong.com/u020.html
"Peg and Awl" - The Carolina Tar Heels
Where Dead Voices Gather: Life at 78RPM
https://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/2009/11/peg-and-awl-carolina-tar-heels.html
Countyworks.com - Century of Country - Definitive Country Music Encyclopedia
(Published 2006, retrieved from Internet Archive Jun 04, 2025)
https://web.archive.org/web/20060219075854/https://www.countryworks.com/artist_full.asp?KEY=CAROLINA
Dock Walsh - FamilySearch
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/M8ZP-Q61
Gwin Foster- FamilySearch
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/about/L2GH-95V
Garley Foster - FamilySearch
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/LHVL-JQT
Illustrated Doc Walsh / Carolina Tar Heels discography
https://www.wirz.de/music/walshdoc.htm
Carolina Tar Heels - BlueRidgeHeritage
https://www.blueridgeheritage.com/artist/carolina-tar-heels/
Bluegrass Messengers - Carolina Tar Heels- 1927
http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/carolina-tar-heels.aspx
Tom Ashley, Sam McGee, Bukka White: Tennessee Traditional Singers
edited by Thomas G. Burton
Tennessee University Press, 1981
pp. 32-33
https://books.google.com/books?id=4LW3luwB-k8C&dq=%22gwen+foster%22+harmonica&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q=%22gwen%20foster%22%20harmonica&f=false
Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary
By Richard Carlin
Published 2003 Routledge NY, NY
https://books.google.com/books?id=UWmyUQVUqhQC&dq=%22gwen+foster%22+harmonica&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=true