Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer “bangs out a spectacularly inventive social message” (Los Angeles Times). Wolfe’s love for Appalachian folk song is the heart of this moving retelling of “John Henry,” a classic American ballad of man versus machine. Wolfe’s exquisite vocal writing is complemented by standard instruments as well as wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo, clapping, and clogging in this one-of-a-kind work that explores the African American experience, the labor movement, and myth building.