> Folk Music > Songs > Peg and Awl

Peg and Awl

[ Roud 4619 ; Ballad Index Lof144 ; trad.]

Hobart Smith sang Peg and Awl on his eponymous 1964 Folk-Legacy album Hobart Smith of Saltville, Virginia, also released in 1969 in the UK on Topic as The Old Timey Rap. George Armstrong and Fleming Brown noted:

The title of this song refers to a “pegging awl” used by cobblers in making the soles of the old shoes which were pegged together with wooden pegs, usually hickory. The lyrics point up the fact that the problem of automation is an old one and a mixed blessing. The dates given in the text, however, would seem to have been dictated by poetical rather than historical considerations, since the first machinery used in the mass production of shoes was not introduced until the middle of the nineteenth century. The song is apparently American in origin, for no British versions have been found, according to no less an authority that A.L. Lloyd. It would also seem to be fairly rare in America, since only two other recorded versions are known. Hobart states that he learned the song from his sister, Texas Gladden. Here he accompanies himself on the fiddle, with some dulcimer backing supplied by the eminent dulcimer tuner of Wilmette, Illinois, Abercrombie K. Jessup.

Vic Shepherd and John Bowden sang Peg ’n Awl on their 1982 album A Motty Down.

Tom Kitching and Gren Bartley sang Peg ’n’ Awl, “a song about the losers to the mechanisation of industry”, in 2007 on their first Fellside album, Rushes.

Elisabeth LaPrelle sang Peg and Awl in 2007 on her album Lizard in the Spring. She noted:

We learned this song from the singing and guitar playing of Hobart Smith, who was from Saltville in Smyth County. Peg and Awl was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959. Why such a simple song about shoes is so appealing is something of a mystery, but we like it.

Ella Munro sang Peg and Awl on her 2018 EP The Final Trawl.

Lyrics

Hobart Smith sings Peg and Awl

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
Pegging shoes is all I done;
    Hand me down my peg, my awl,
    My peg and 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
Pegging shoes is all I do;
    Hand me down my peg, my awl,
    My peg and 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
New machine is set me free;
    Throw away my peg, my awl,
    My peg and 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,
Purtiest little thing you ever seen;
    Throw away my peg, my awl,
    My peg and 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
Pegging shoes I’ll do no more;
    Throw away my peg, my awl,
    My peg and awl.