Steel Hammer

The American folk hero is given a 21st century makeover

The legends of John Henry are various and often disputed; he's been sung about by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash. The African-American railroad worker reputedly died moments after outperforming a steam-powered drill while working on tunnel holes for explosives, with his hammer still in his hand. Now Pulitzer Prize winning composer Julia Wolfe takes her 2009 opera work to BAM for a stripped back country music version, which sets out to distill the various incarnations of the tale into a definitive version.

Directed by Anne Bogart and SITI Company, they are joined by playwrights Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Regina Taylor as they jointly provide additional material to the story, having researched over 200 variations on the rural legend. The musical element provided by percussion group Bang On A Can Allstars takes on a distinctly Appalachian feel using regional instruments such as the banjo, bones and the rarely heard mountain dulcimer, all coming together to rework the tale for a modern audience.