Head Hammer Man

This album is about the unsung hero Alrik Andersson and the dramatic events in Horndal during the Great Strike in Sweden in 1909. Six months before the strike, Alrik Andersson, a 27-year-old metalworker from Horndal, is chosen as the union leader. He finds himself in the eye of the storm and is forced to take a stand on the barricades for the sake of his members, struggling with lockouts, scabs and greedy officials. When the manager of the Horndal factory starts evicting the unionized workers from their homes, leading to famine and starvation, sympathetic workers from far away rush to Horndal to stop the harassment. The military arrives in Horndal and the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Eventually, the King and the Prime Minister forbid the manager of the Horndal Steel Mill from evicting the workers and instead order their reinstatement. As a result, Alrik Andersson is blacklisted all over Sweden and can’t find work anywhere. Faced with continued harassment, he is forced in exile and emigrates to America. In 1910, he, his wife, and their young sons make their dangerous journey across the Atlantic, where he eventually finds work in Chicago as the Head Hammer Man. This album is dedicated to Alrik Andersson. Hail to the Head Hammer Man!This recording is a musical summery of what happened in Horndal in 1909. The whole story is told in a book, also named Head Hammer Man. It was written and published parallel with the album.