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"Cluck Old Hen" is a popular Appalachian fiddle and banjo tune in dorian mode.
It is played either as an instrumental or with lyrics, which vary from one version to
another. One of the earliest reported transcriptions of the tune dates from 1886.
Fiddlers usually add "chicken cluck" effects with either bow strokes or left hand
pizzacatos.
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 effused 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."The earliest recording is attributed to Fiddlin' John Carson, in 1923. It was also recorded by Grayson & Whitter, Henry Reed, Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed, Fred Cockerham, Frank Proffitt and others. |