Indian Ate a Woodchuck
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Indian Ate the Woodchuck", also known as "Indian Et the Woodchuck",<br> "Injun Et the Woodchuck" or<br> "Indian Ate/Et the Woodpecker/Woodcock/Woodhen" is an old-time breakdown known in<br> Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee in C Major. The parts are played AAAA'BB (Phillips) or<br> AABCC (Titon).<br> The B part is similar to the A part of "Soldier's Joy" and some versions have some phrases<br> in common with "The Red Haired Boy". The version given here is from John Salyer.<br> The melody was in the repertoire of Kentucky fiddlers John<br> Salyer (1882-1952), Estill Bingham (1899-1990), Owen "Snake" Chapman and bluegrass<br> fiddler Kenny Baker (who called it "Indian Killed a Woodcock").<br> Ed Haley played a "busier" or 'notier' version of the tune in three parts.<br> The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by<br> musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. African-American fiddler<br> Frank Patterson recorded the tune under the title "Indian and the Woodchuck" for the<br> Library of Congress around 1942.<br> There is sometimes a verse used with the tune:<br> Injun et a woodchuck,<br> He et it in a minute,<br> He et it so durn quick<br> He had no time to skin it.<br> The banjo tablature is by John Letscher who based it on the version played by Ed Hayley.<br> It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1982),<br> Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes<br> (2011), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995),<br> Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2011),<br> Titon's Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (2001). <br> It was recorded by John Salyer on John M. Salyer: Home Recordings 1941-1942, vol. 2 (1993)<br> and Ed Haley on Forked Deer (1997). <br>
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