Steel Hammer

Steel Hammer is the hotly anticipated alt-folk album by Julia Wolfe, featuring the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval.

Inspired by her love for the music and lore of Appalachia, Julia Wolfe based her text for Steel Hammer (called a “wild hybrid” by the New York Times) on over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad, exploring the subject of human vs. machine in the quintessential American legend. Featuring the haunting—and often haunted—vocalizations of Norway’s Trio Mediaeval, Steel Hammer also stretches the standard instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars with wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo and more.

Steel Hammer is also now an exciting new evening-length theater work pairing Bang on a Can All-Stars with renowned director Anne Bogart and SITI Company.