View source for Annotation:Old Cow Died in the Forks of the Branch

=='''Back to [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]'''==
----
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
'''OLD COW DIED IN THE FORKS OF THE BRANCH.''' Old-Time, Song. USA; northern Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The title (and also a verse) has been a "floater" in the old-time tradition, and refers to the death of a cow at the confluence of a stream. In the repertory of Tuscaloosa, Alabama fiddler E.D. "Monkey" Brown (1897-1972). Kentucky fiddler and banjo player Clyde Davenport sang:
<blockquote>
''The old cow died in the forks of the branch,''<br>
''Forks of the branch;''<br>
''The old cow died in the forks of the branch,''<br>
''Oh, them buzzards, how they danced.''<br>
</blockquote>
A similar rhyme, mixed in with several other "floating" couplets (such as can be found in "[[Old Dan Tucker]]," "[[Buckeye Jim]]" and similar songs) appears in White's '''American Negro Folk Songs''':
<blockquote>
''Away down yonder in the forks of the branch''<br>
''The jaybird whistled and the buzzard danced.''<br>
<br>
''De old cow died in de head of the branch,''<br>
''De jay birds whistled and de buzzards danced. ''<br>
</blockquote>
John Harrell [http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/harrellfed1274.html], recorded in Marshall, Arkansas, in June, 1963, sang his song "[[Fed My Horse]]" [http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/harrellfed1274.mp3], which contained the lines: 
<blockquote>
''Fed my horse in the poplar trough,''<br>
''And the old cow died with the whooping cough.''<br>
''The old cow died in the fork of the branch;''<br>
''The buzzards had them a public dance.''<br>
</blockquote>
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
''Source for notated version'': 
<br>
<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
''Printed sources'': 
<br>
<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
''Recorded sources'': <font color=teal>County 788, Clyde Davenport (Monticello, Ky.) - "Clydeoscope: Rare and Beautiful Tunes from the Cumberland Plateau" (1986. A banjo tune/song learned from his father.). Field Recorders Collective FRC103 & FRC104, "Clyde Davenport."  Joseph Decosimo - "Sequatchie Valley."</font>
<br>
<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
See also listing at:<br>
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/o04.htm#Oldcodii]<br>
Hear Joe Decomiso's version [http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/20130702-Joseph-Decosimo-Old-Cow-Died-in-the-Forks-of-the-Branch.mp3]<br>
</font></p>
<br>
<br>
----
=='''Back to [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]'''==