Jon W, try getting ahold of "Shanties From The Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill, latest edition pub. by (& available from) Mystic Seaport Museum. You won't find a better discription & explanation on shanties. As to being able to tell the type of work by the song, yes, alot of the same songs were used for different tasks just be changing it a bit. Shenandoah was used at the capstan (capstan shanties usually have a grand chours), in the West Indies it's used as a rowing shanty (under the name of 'World Of Misery') while chasing blackfish (whales), chop part of the grand chours down & it's been used at the winches for loading cargo.The same proves true for prison work songs, 'Plumb The Line' & 'Down The Line', very similar, melodically & structurally, though the later is used for flatweeding & the former for crosscutting, & still by the way the song is sung you can tell what task it was used for. "Ain't No More Cane On The Brazos" depending on who & how (usually solo) it was sung would be for cane or cotton, where as 'Ol Dollar Mamie' done fast & choppy could be for double crosscutting & sing a different version & slightly change it & it's used for flatweeding. Track lining gangs had their songs & the roustabouts had their songs, loading & unloading steamboats of cotton bales (7,000 bales at a wack sometimes). One of the fanciest of the steamboats was the Jon W (any connection). Of the prison songs see Bruce Jackson's "Wake Up Dead Man"`, pub by Harvard Un. Press, don't know if it's out of print but the accompaning LP was just eissued as a CD from Rounder. Barry Barry