Cacklin' Hen
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traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Cacklin' Hen", also known as "The Old Hen Cackled", "Old Hen She Cackled", "Hen Cackled",<br> "Cluck Old Hen", "Cackling Pullet", "Chicken in the Barnyard" or "Old Man Depression Get on<br> Your Way" is an old-time breakdown in G Major. There are many melodically disparate<br> variations of the tune. The one given here is was collected by Marion Thede in Oklahoma.<br> The parts are played AABB (Brody, Ruth, Shumway), AA'BB (Phillips) or ABBCDD (Thede).<br> Many variants of this widely known tune appear under titles which include the adjective<br> "cluck" or "cackling," often with the word "old" also appended. It has been a fiddle<br> contest standard and is often still heard at fiddler's gatherings; for example, it is<br> mentioned in a 1931 account of LaFollette, northeast Tennessee fiddlers' contest, and,<br> in 1899 in a contest in Gallatin, Tennessee "Cackling Hen" was one of the 'catagory'<br> tunes (where each fiddler would play the same tune with the winning version winning a<br> prize). The piece was reworked by the early 20th century Georgia group, The Skillet<br> Lickers, recorded in 1934 as "Old Man Depression Get on Your Way" in praise of Roosevelt's<br> New Deal. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled<br> by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954 and it was in the repertoire<br> of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, fiddler Edden Hammons. <br> It was printed in<br> Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940),<br> Ruth's Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948),<br> Thede's The Fiddle Book (1967),<br> Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983),<br> Shumway's Frontier Fiddler (1990) and<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes vol. 1 (1994).<br> It was recorded by Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky,<br> Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters, the New Lost City Ramblers and others.<br> Fiddlers seem to like chicken tunes. It's easy to make chicken sounds with a scrape of the<br> bow. Most serious fiddlers consider this cheap theatrics. This tune has no sound effects;<br> it's just a straight-up pretty easy tune.<br> Other poultry tunes in this collection are:<br> Cluck Old Hen<br> Chicken Reel<br> Turkey in the Straw.<br>
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