Crippled Turkey
CRIPPLED TURKEY. AKA - "Cripple Turkey." Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody is realted to "Say Old Man (Can You Play the Fiddle)," and perhaps a variant. It has become the basis for swing and contest improvisations in many versions. Recorded by Texas fiddler Bob Wills in 1936, but unreleased. There is a town called Turkey, Texas, where Bob Wills played at the Turkey Hotel, prior to removing to Fort Worth where his career took off. The title "Crippled Turkey" may be older than Wills; if so, I have not yet found that it predates him.
Source for notated version: Absie Morrison (1876-1964, Searcy County, Arkansas) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed source: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 102.
Recorded sources: United Artists UA-LA 216-J2, Bob Wills - "For the Last Time" (1974). See also listings at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1].
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