Big Jim from Band O'Brothers by Band O'Brothers

In the Nineteen-teens and twenties, the foreman of the blacksmith shop for the Brown Company in Berlin, NH was none other than James Joseph Malloy, great-grandfather of Mark and Sean, and great-great-grandfather of Gavin. This song is inspired by our father's stories about Big Jim, ("Himself"), and by photos and interviews of Big Jim. The song is also inspired, of course, by the tools he made and the anvils on which he made them, some of which can be heard on this recording.

Thanks also to the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and for his wonderful sonnet "The Forge," in which you can hear the hammered anvil's short-pitched ring.

Tracklist

8.	Big Jim	3:55

Lyrics

BIG JIM

Hear it sing,
The hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring
The blacksmith stands
With a piece he’s worked with two strong hands
He plies his trade,
No man could make a finer blade
Big Jim
Perhaps you’ve heard of him

James Joseph, the Blacksmith King

Without a blacksmith shop you can’t build a thing

Been here for years
Before steam hammers or power shears
The bellows swoon,
Breathing fire for axes and picaroons
Train rails and spikes
Shaped by his hammer’s mighty strikes
The local farms
Run on tools he made with his two strong arms

James Joseph, the Blacksmith King
Without a blacksmith shop you can’t build a thing

A dying art
His shop was this small town’s beating heart
Things aren’t the same
Since the factories and machine shops came
His days are long,
But he does his part and staggers on
In the flame and heat,
He’ll mold and shape and pound and beat

Hear it sing,
The hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring

His edge won’t dull
His flame will ever burn through the dark,
So let fall the hammer . . .
Let fly the spark,
Let fall the hammer . . .
Let fly the sparks!

Credits

from Band O'Brothers, released November 19, 2016
Words and Music by Sean Malloy (with a tip of the cap to Famous Seamus Heaney).

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