Turkey in the Straw
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traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
An overwhelmingly popular tune in American fiddle tradition.<br> Bayard (1981) suggests that a Scottish tune called "The (Bonny)<br> Black Eagle" (also called "The Way to Edinburgh" by Oswald) resembles<br> "Turkey in the Straw" in both parts. Besides Samuel Bayard,<br> Alan Jabbour, Winston Wilkinson, George Pullen Jackson and others<br> think that a tune with an even stronger resemblance in the first part<br> to the first part of Turkey is "The Rose Tree". Their apparent<br> conclusion is that the Turkey tune is a composite of two older<br> Scottish tunes, the 'A' part of "The Rose Tree" and the 'B' part of<br> "The (Bonny) Black Eagle."<br> Whatever its origins, it was probably in American folk tradition<br> before the 19th century and popular theater and minstrel groups<br> during the 19th century helped consolidate and spread its popularity<br> (it was often called "Old Zip Coon" in minstrel tradition) and one<br> version was copyrighted by Dan Bryant, the melody labelled only an<br> "old melody," presumably referring to “Old Zip Coon.”<br> Michael Cooney sings some silly verses to this tune that amuse kids.<br> Like everyone else, I learned it in grade school when minstrel songs<br> were a large part of music classes.<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> Cacklin' Hen<br> Chicken Reel.<br>
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