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Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow/Cacklin Hen
Traditional Bluegrass, Old Time; Breakdown- USA, widely known.
ARTIST: Fiddlin' John Carson 1923
MP3 Listen: Carson's Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow
Listen: Clayton McMichen's Old Hen Cackle (instrumental- adlib vocal comments)
Listen: Skillet Lickers- Cacklin' Hen and The Rooster Too (instrumental- adlib vocal comments)
Listen: Blind Pete & Partner- Cacklin' Hen; (instrumental) Field recording 1934
Listen: Ralph Stanley- Cacklin' Hen; (instrumental)
Listen: J.E. Mainer- Cacklin' Hen; (mostly- instrumental)
Mainer's version has lyrics:
Old hen cackled, cackled in the lot,
Next time she cackled, cackled in the pot.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s
RECORDING INFO: Briar 4206, "Scotty Stoneman." Flying Fish 102, New Lost City Ramblers- "20 Years Concert Performances" (1978. Learned from Joe Stewart's Folkways album). Folkways FA2314, Joe Stewart - "American Banjo Scruggs Style." Kicking Mule, Reed Martin- "The Old-Time Banjo in America." Rounder C11565, Fred Price (northeastern Tenn.) - "Rounder Fiddle" (1990). Rounder 0009, Clint Howard, Fred Price & Sons - "The Ballad of Finley Preston." Rounder CD 0383, Mike Seegar and Paul Brown - "Down in North Carolina." Stoneway 104, Chubby Wise- "Chubby Wise and His Fiddle." Stoneway 148, Chubby Wise- "Fiddle Hoedown." Martin, Bogen and Armstrong- "Barnyard Dance." Recorded for OKeh in 1925 by Dedrick Harris (b. 1868) {Tenn., Asheville N.C.}, one of only two fiddle solos he made. Armstrong, Howard (Louie Blue). Louie Blue, Arhoolie 1095, LP (1985), cut# 15; Blackburn, Uncle Rufus. Galax Virginia; Old Fiddler's Convention, Folkways FA 2435, LP (1964), cut#B.04; Brady, Rafe. Cherokee Rose, Heritage (Galax) 032, LP (1981), cut# 12; Chapman, Willie. Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40077, CD (1996), cut#1.23; Dr. Horsehair's Old Time Minstrels. Old-Time Clawhammer Banjo, Horsehair, Cas (1992), cut# 7; Hall, Leland. Old-Time Fiddling of Braxton County, Augusta Heritage AHR 012, Cas (1992), cut#A.01; Hammons, Edden. Edden Hammons Collection. Vol Two, West Virginia Univ SA-2, CD (2000), cut#2.02; Howard, Clint; and Fred Price. Ballad of Finley Preston, Rounder 0009, LP (1972), cut# 6; Jenkins, Oren. American Banjo, Folkways FA 2314, LP (1966), cut# 10 (Old Hen She Cackled (and the Rooster Crowed)); Keith, Leslie. Black Mountain Blues, Briar BF-4210, LP (1974), cut# 5; Kessinger, Clark. Clark Kessinger, Fiddler, Folkways FA 2336, LP (1966), cut# 9 (Cluck Old Hen); Ledford, Lilly Mae. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Greenhays GR 712, LP (1983), cut# 7; Marion, Carlie. Going Across the River to Hear my Banjo Ring, Marimac 9018, Cas (1988), cut# 21; Martin, Bogen & Armstrong. Barnyard Dance, Rounder 2003, LP (1972), cut# 5; Martin, Reed. Old Time Banjo in America, Kicking Mule KM 204, LP (1978), cut# 1; Mitchell, Bill. Festival of Fiddle Tunes, Voyager VRLP 326-S, LP (1979), cut# 12; Moore, Charlie. Original Rebel Soldier, Wango 114, LP (1976), cut#B.03; Moss, Frazier. Fiddling with Frazier, Plateau NR-3508, LP (197?), cut#B.02 (Kackling Hen); Osborn, Roy. More Fiddle Jam Sessions, Voyager VRLP 304, LP (197?), cut# 17; Pegram, George; and Parham, Red (Walter). Pickin' and Blowin', Riverside RLP 12-60, LP (195?), cut# 5; Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Down Home, Roan Mountain, CD (2000/1983), cut#13; Seeger, Mike; and Paul Brown. Way Down in North Carolina, Rounder 0383, CD (1996), cut# 7; Skillet Lickers. Corn Licker Still in Georgia, Voyager VRLP 303, LP (197?), cut#B.09; Smathers, Luke; String Band. Mountain Swing, June Appal JA 0024, LP (1977), cut# 1; Spencer, Thornton & Emily. Best of Seedtime on the Cumberland, June Appal JA 0059C, Cas (198?), cut# 12; Stewart, Joe. American Banjo, Folkways FA 2314, LP (1966), cut# 2; Stoneking, Lee R.. Missouri Old Time Fiddling, Stoneking, LP (197?), cut#A.06; Walters, Bob. Paddy on the Turnpike, MSOTFA 109, Cas (1993), cut#B.13; Watson, Doc; Clint Howard and Fred Price. Old Timey Concert, Vanguard 107/8, Cas (1987), cut#B.10b; Wise, Chubby (Robert R.). Chubby Wise and his Fiddle, Stoneway STY 104, LP (197?), cut#B.06;
OTHER NAMES: "Old Hen Cackled," "Old Hen She Cackled," "Hen Cackled," "Cackling Pullet," "Chicken in the Barnyard," "Barnyard Serenade," "Old Man Depression Get On Your Way," “Corn Dodger Special #1,” "Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow."
SOURCES: Chubby Wise (Brody), Jubal Anderson (Pottawatomie County, Ok.) [Thede]; Kenner C. Kartchner (Arizona) [Shumway]; Robert Wise [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 60. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 92. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; pg. 43. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 94, pg. 34. Shumway (Frontier Fiddler), 1990; pg. 266. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 123. Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 92a; Anderson, Jubal. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p123; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "G Major. Standard. AABB (Brody, Ruth, Shumway); AA'BB (Phillips): ABBCDD (Thede). Many variants of this widely known tune appear under titles which include the adjective "cluck" or "cackling," often with the word "old" also appendaged (see alternate titles above). It has been a fiddle contest standard, and is often still heard at fiddler's gatherings; for example, it is mentioned in a 1931 account of LaFollette, northeast Tenn., fiddlers' contest, and, in 1899 in a contest in Gallatin, Tenn., "Cackling Hen" was one of the 'catagory' tunes (where each fiddler would play the same tune with the winning version winning a prize {Charles Wolfe, The Devil's Box, Vol. 14, No. 4, 12/1/80}). The piece was reworked by the early 20th century Georgia group called the Skillet Lickers, and was recorded by them in the early 30's as "Old Man Depression Get On Your Way." The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"The first commercial country record to be issued was Fiddlin' John Carson's Old Hen Cackled and The Rooster's Going to Crow, backed with The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, recorded 14/06/23. When the record company got around to listing it in the catalogue it was assigned the number OKEH 4890. Both sides were very much in the vein of early country music, although neither owes much to the folk traditions of Britain or Ireland. So far as I know there is no documentation on the ownership of phonographs in backwoods America, but the fact that Carson's disc met with immediate runaway success, and precipitated an entire country music industry, suggests that they were fairly common even by 1923." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"John Carson’s "Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow" (Key G Standard AABBCCDD) was popular with both black and white mid-South string bands, writes Charles Wolfe (1991), although it is "conspicuously absent from most standard collections of black folk songs." As evidence of the tune in black tradition, it was in the repertoire of African-American fiddler Cuje Bertram (of the Cumberland Plateau region, Kentucky), recorded by him on a 1970 home recording he made for his family. It also was recorded by African-American fiddlers Howard Armstrong and the string-band team of Joe Evans and Arthur McClain." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The tune was widely known in the South and Mid-West, with several regional and personal variants. Later in the same era Chattanooga fiddler Jess Young added a part in the key of C in his recording. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's. Apart from numerous recordings in the 78 RPM era, evidence for its popularity comes from contemporary newspapers. It is listed in the Northwest Alabamian (Fayette) of August 19, 1929, as one of the tunes likely to be played at an upcoming fiddlers' convention. The Chilton County News (Alabama) of June 1, 1922, predicted it would be one of the tunes that would "vie with the latest jazz nerve wreckers for first place" at a Chilton County fiddlers' convention. That a fiddler's rendition "Old Hen Cackles" was often a benchmark of his skill is illustrated by John Carson's recorded exchange (on Okeh 45448) with a fiddler named 'Bully' Brewer."(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Bully: I'm the best fiddler that ever wobbled a bow.
John: I don't give a durn, I'm the best fiddler that ever jerked the hairs of a horse's tail across the belly of a cat.
Bully: Well, I'll play Old Hen Cackle
John: Turn your dog loose.
(Bully plays)
Bully: Well, what're you going to play, John?
John: I'm going to play the fiddle...that's a durn sight more than you've done.
Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow- John Carson
Listen: MP3
[Fiddle]
Old hen cackled everybody knows,
The old hen cackled and the rooster's going to crow.
[Fiddle] Spoken: Old Shanghai, well over the hill now
[Fiddle] Spoken: Old Fanny in the backyard
[Fiddle]
Old hen cackled, cackled mighty loud,
Ain't laid an egg, walked mighty proud.
[Fiddle]
Old hen cackled, cackled in the lot,
Last time she cackled, cackled in the pot.
[Fiddle]
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