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Cluck Old Hen
Traditional tune and lyrics. Old-Time, Breakdown- West Virginia, southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, Kentucky.
ARTIST: Vester Jones on Folkways 3811
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1909.
OTHER NAMES: "Cackling Hen," "Chicken in the Barnyard," "Cluckin' Hen," "Hen Cackled," "Old Hen Cackled," “Snowbird in Ashbank;” “Knock-Kneed Nanny And Fare-Thee-Well”
SOURCES: Jay Unger (West Hurley, New York) [Kuntz]: Charlie Higgins and Wade Ward (Va.) [Krassen]. Ken Kosek [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 70. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 92 (appears as "Cackling Hen"). Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982/1988; pg. 2. Kuntz (Ragged But Right), 1987; pg. 219-220. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 32. Warner (Traditional American Folk Songs), 1984; pgs. 292-293. Erbsen-Front Porch Old-time Songbook pg. 13; Krassen, Miles. Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p35; Leftwich, Brad. Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald OTH, Ser (1987-), 3/3, p38; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
RECORDING INFO: Earliest recording is Fiddlin Powers. Augusta Heritage Recordings AHR-004C, Harvey Sampson and the Big Possum String Band - "Flat Foot in the Ashes" (1986/1994. Learned by Calhoun County, W.Va., fiddler Harvey Sampson from his father and others). Bay 204, The Arkansas Sheiks- "Whiskey Before Breakfast." Carryon Records 007, The Renegades - "I Need to Find." Cassette C-7625, Wilson Douglas - "Back Porch Symphony." County 405, "The Hill-Billies." County 701, Kyle Creed & Fred Cockerham - "Clawhammer Banjo." County 745, John Ashby- "Down on Ashby's Farm." County 756, Tommy Jarrell- "Sail Away Ladies" (1976). Folk Legacy FSA 1, Frank Proffitt (1962). Folkways Records, Vester Jones - "Music of Carroll and Grayson Counties" (c. 1964). Gennett 6436 (78 RPM), 1928, G.B. Grayson (Va.). Heritage 080, Enoch Rutherford - "Old Cap'n Rabbit." In the repertoire of Fiddlin' Cowan Powers 1877-1952? (Russell County, Va.) and recorded by him for Edison in 1925. Recorded on a 78 by Grayson and Whitter. Rounder Records, "Spark Gap Wonder Boys" (1970). Voyager Records, Vivian Williams - "Winter Moon." Arkansas Sheiks. Whiskey Before Breakfast, Bay 204, LP (1975), cut# 3; Ashby, John. Down on Ashby's Farm, County 745, LP (197?), cut# 10; Bogtrotters (Bog Trotters). Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward, Folkways FA 2363, LP (1962), cut#B.15; Bossie, Bob. Library of Congress Banjo Collection, Rounder 0237, LP (1988), cut# 12; Carawan, Guy. Green Rocky Road, June Appal JA 0021, LP, cut# 4; Cornett, Bill (Banjo Bill). Mountain Music of Kentucky, Folkways FA 2317, LP (1960), cut# 27; Cornett, Bill (Banjo Bill). Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40077, CD (1996), cut#1.28; Creed, Kyle; and Fred Cockerham. Clawhammer Banjo, County 701, LP (1965), cut# 12; Douglas, Wilson. Back Porch Symphony, Douglas C-7625, LP (1995), cut#B.02; Gaskin, Phyllis. Mountain Dulcimer - Galax Style, Heritage (Galax) 094C, Cas (1991), cut# 5; George, Franklin/Frank. Swope's Knobs, Anachronistic 001, LP (1977), cut#2.10; Grayson and Whitter. Going Down Lee Highway, Davis Unlimited DU 33033, LP (1977), cut# 10; Haley, Ed. Grey Eagle (Vol. 2), Rounder 1133/1134, CD (1997), 1.09; Hillbillies. Hillbillies, County 405, LP (197?), cut#B.03; Jarrell, Tommy. Sail Away Ladies, County 756, LP (197?), cut# 3; Jones, Vester. Traditional Music From Grayson and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811, LP (1962), cut# 1; Krauss, Alison; and Union Station. Every Time You Say Goodbye, Rounder 0285, CD (1992), cut# 4; Long, Bill. More Fiddle Jam Sessions, Voyager VRLP 304, LP (197?), cut# 10; Lundy, Ted. 38th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention, 1973, Gazette 38, LP (1973), cut# 6; Mahal, Taj. Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home, Columbia CG 18, LP (197?), cut# 16; McNew, Walter. Black Jack Grove, Appalachian Center Ser. AC005, Cas (1993), cut#A.05; Mullins, Ira. 2nd Annual Brandywine Mountain Music Festival, "75 Tradition..., Heritage (Galax) 012, LP (1976), cut# 10; Old Scratch Band. Old Scratch Band, California Condor CCLP-2, LP (197?), cut# 3; Osborne, Uncle Charlie (Charlie N.). 100 Years Farther On, June Appal JA 0064C, Cas (199?), cut# 10; Pecora, Charlie. 15th Annual Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest, Black Mountain Mi 7775, LP (197?), cut# 5; Pickin' Around the Cookstove. Pickin' Around the Cookstove, Rounder 0040, LP (1975), cut# 4a ; Proffitt, Frank. Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina, Folk Legacy FSA-001, Cas (1962), cut#A.02; Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Down Home, Roan Mountain, CD (2000/1983), cut# 3; Rutherford, Ernest; and the Gold Hill Band. Old Cap'n Rabbit, Heritage (Galax) 080, Cas (1989), cut# 22; Sampson, Harvey; & the Big Possum String Band. Flat Foot in the Ashes, Augusta Heritage AHR 004, LP (1986), cut#2.02; Slaughter, Matokie; and the Back Creek Buddies. Saro, Marimac 9028, Cas (1990), cut# 4 ; Slaughter, Matokie; and the Back Creek Buddies. Saro, Marimac 9028, Cas (1990), cut# 17; Smith, Ralph Lee. Dulcimer. Old Time and Traditional Music, Skyline DD-102, LP (197?), cut# 16; Spark Gap Wonder Boys. Cluck Old Hen, Rounder 0002, LP (1970), cut#A.01; Spiva, Ora. More Fiddle Jam Sessions, Voyager VRLP 304, LP (197?), cut# 9; Sprung, Roger; & his Progressive Bluegrassers. Grassy Licks, Verve/Folkways FV 9037, LP (196?), cut# 9; Ward, Wade. Banjo Songs, Ballads and Reels from the Southern Mountains, Prestige International INT 25004, LP (196?), cut# 10; Ward, Wade. Uncle Wade. A Memorial to Wade Ward, Old Time Virginia Banjo ..., Folkways FA 2380, LP (1973), cut# 1; Ward, Wade. Southern Journey. Vol. 2: Ballads and Breakdowns, Rounder 1702, CD (1997), cut#26; Weaver, Ed. Appalachia, The Old Traditions, Home Made Music LP-001, LP (1982), cut# 4; Whiskey Creek String Band. On the Rocks, Farmers MF 105, LP (1978), cut#A.02
NOTES: Sing verse chorus (AABB form). "A Dorian or A Mixolydian (Phillips). Standard, DGDG (Harvey Sampson) or AEAE. Charles Wolfe (1982) states the tune was popular with Kentucky fiddlers. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell tells us that "Cluck Old Hen" is in the "old-timey tuning of A" also called the "sawmill key" (AEAE). Jarrell was inspired to learn the tune from a distant relative and musical contemporary of his father (fiddler Ben Jarrell), named Tony Lowe, who enphused the tune with an intricate routine which combined pizzicato "clucks" on the fiddle with elaborate gestures: "He'd swing the whole fiddle way out, and when he started back he'd pluck it in again and hit that with the bow, and all the while he'd never miss his time," said Jarrell (quoted by Barry Poss, 1976). It so happened that Russell County, southwest Virginia, musician Fiddlin' Cowan Powers was playing this tune on stage with the Stanley Brothers (Carter & Ralph) in Saltville, Virginia, when he had a fatal heart attack in the early 1950's."(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"Cluck Old Hen" is a well-known tune and song through the Appalachian South, quite distinct from another barnyard evocation, "Cackling Hen," which is played in G. The song "Cluck Old Hen" consists of a series of playful verses. As an instrumental tune, it is popular on both fiddle and banjo. On the fiddle, one of the tune's special features is the "cluck" made by left-hand picking of the strings. In Henry Reed's second performance (AFS 13703b26), the "cluck" is the open E-string, though other fiddlers use both the E and A-strings, or even the E, A, and D-strings. In this, his first performance, he does not do the left-hand picking, but the set shows interesting variation among the repetitions of the second strain. It seems clear here that the variation is a matter of conscious creative modification, not unconscious changes (From the Henry Reed Collection; Library of Congress).
Ed Weaver played this unusual variant of an otherwise common tune on a beautiful home-made fiddle. He knew the following three verses:
LYRICS:
CLUCK OLD HEN- Vester Jones on Folkways 3811
The old hen cackled, she cackled in the lot
The next time she cackled, she cackled in the pot
The old hen cackled, she cackled for corn
The old hen cackled, now the chickens all gone
That old hen, she’s raised on a farm
Now she’s on new ground, digging up corn
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