Sixteen Tons and What Do You Get? Songs and Stories of Work in America

Wednesday, June 6 at 6 PM in the Large Meeting Room.

From "I’ve Been Working on the Railroad" to "Take This Job and Shove It," Americans have sung about work, whether they’re nine-to-fivers or dawn-to-duskers. The songs from union halls, mines, fields, factories, picket lines and jail cells are the soundtrack to an important part of American history, and they can still stir us. As one old-timer put it, "The boss had all the money, but we had all the songs." At a time when the nation is debating about what rights workers have, these songs are worth remembering, reexamining, and perhaps re-singing. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Presenter Bill Rossiter is from Kalispell and emeritus instructor of literature, humanities and folklore, will accompany the songs with guitar, banjo, autoharp and harmonica. He is a recipient of the 2015 Governor’s Humanities Award. Funding for the Montana Conversations program is provided by Humanities Montana through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montana’s Cultural Trust, and private donations.