Just an addendum to Bill's earlier post about the Washington Folk Festival's "Rhythms of Work" workshop - the infamous track lining song required the Festival crew to move the abovementioned 15' section of railroad track out from storage to the stage area, then back to storage again...ouch.

The tempo consciousness-raising session for pumping shanties occured when , in a fit of vengeance for all the work setting up for this @#@!! workshop required every year (moving railroad track, rigging pulleys in poison ivy infested trees, moving yurts, etc), our crew chief Dwain installed a couple heavy-duty shock absorbers on the rocker pump instead of the springs that had been there. When KC King and Tom McHenry of the Boarding Party launched into the pumping tempo they had used in previous years for the spring mount pump, they rapidly found out why pumping shanties were usually done at a much more deliberate pace.

After a run of several consecutive years of doing this workshop for the WFF, it was retired before the volunteer crew did....