Annotation:Hawk's got a Chicken (1)

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X:1 T:Hawk's got a Chicken [1] S:Doc Roberts (1897-1978, Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Fast" D:Gennett 7110 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts Trio (1930) D:Champion 16026 (78 RPM), Fiddlin' Jim Burke (1930) N:Jim Burke was a pseudonym for Doc Roberts. F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/hawks-got-chicken Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G B,C|D2E2G3B|A2 G4[G2_B2]-|[G=B]AGB AGEF|G6B,C| D2E2G3B| A2 G4[G2_B2]-|[G=B]AGB AGEG|D6B,C| D2E2G3B|A2 G4[G2_B2]-|[G=B]AGB AGEF|G6 || ef|g2 ga gedg|e2d2(_B=B2)d|BAGB AGEF|+slide+G6ef| g2 fa gedg|e2d2(_B=B2)d|BAGB AGEG|D6 ef| g2 ga gedg|e2d2(_B=B2)d|BAGB AGEF|+slide+G6||

HAWK'S GOT/CAUGHT A CHICKEN [1] (AND FLEW IN THE WOODS). American, Reel (2/4 or cut time). USA; Kentucky, Texas, Missouri. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABACC. A tune indigenous to east-central Kentucky, according to Charles Wolfe (1982). It was recorded in 1930 by Kentucky fiddler Doc Roberts, and though he recorded many sides, he was supposed by Wolfe to have paid little attention to music outside his home region. Roberts' son James remembered playing the tune with his father in the mid-1920's, thus dating it early in Roberts' repertoire. Musically, Wolfe thinks the end phrases resemble the Kessinger Brothers' "Little Betty Brown." Meade (2002) also lists a versions as "Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe?/John?" Texas fiddler Eck Robertson, who recorded in the 1920's, seems also to have known a tune by this name, as did north Virginia fiddler John Ashby (1915-1979). Words are sometimes sung to one of the parts, along the lines of the following:

Wake up John, get your gun;
Hawk's got a chicken and gone.

Additional notes

Sources for notated versions: - Emanuel Wood (1900-1981, Taney County, Missouri) [Beisswenger & McCann].

Printed sources : - Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 164.

Recorded sources: - Champion 16026 (78 RPM), Fiddlin' Jim Burke (1930. 'Jim Burke' was a pseudonym for Roberts). County 202, "Eck Robertson: Famous Cowboy Fiddler." County 773, John Ashby and the Free State Ramblers - "Fiddling by the Hearth." County 412, "Fiddling Doc Roberts." Document Records DOCD-8043, "Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, vol. 2" (1999). Gennett 7110 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts (1930). Rounder 0437, Noel Scott - "Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, vol. 3: Down in the Border Counties."

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear Doc Roberts' 1930 recording at Slippery Hill [2]

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