The Cuckoo's Nest
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ABC Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
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traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Cuckoo's Nest", also known as "Good Ax Elve", "All Aboard", "Forty Pounds of Feathers<br> in a Hornet's Nest" is an old-time reel known in southwestern Pa., West Virginia and<br> northeastern Kentucky in A Mixolydian. The parts are played AB.<br> Bayard (1944) identifies these Pennsylvania collected versions as derived from the Irish<br> original, some more true to the original than others and notes that it enjoyed great<br> popularity in southwestern Pa. His (A) version (from Emery Martin) represented the<br> prevailing one in that region and he found published sets which indicated that this<br> version was also known elsewhere. He gave a children's game rhyme collected in western<br> Pennsylvania that ran:<br> Wire, briar, limberlock,<br> Three geese in a flock,<br> One flew east, and one flew west,<br> And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.<br> but said there was no proof that the rhyme was associated locally with this melody.<br> The Pennsylvania versions differ from most Irish versions in that the latter often have<br> three parts, of which parts two and three correspond to parts one and two in the Martin<br> (western Pennsylvania) version. Bayard (1944) says "it has survived in this country where<br> the first part as given in Irish sets does not occur and is sometimes given the position of<br> first part in the western Pennsylvania sets". Further differences are the American sets are<br> more strongly mixolydian in character than many Irish ones and while the Irish tune was<br> sometimes used as a song air the American versions were not and it remained a dance tune<br> there. Another version is in The American Veteran Fifer, No. 8. <br> This version is the one collected from Emery Martin in Dunbar, Pa., October 14, 1943.<br> (He learned it from his father).<br> The banjo tablature come from Josh Turknett's Brainjo website.<br> It was printed in Bayard's Hill Country Tunes (1944) and Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981).<br> It was recorded by Ed Haley in his home (1946 & 1947). These recordings were later released<br> by Rounder records as Parkersburg Landing and Grey Eagle.<br>
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