PorterBranch - Posted - 08/08/2025:  05:31:40

Turkey Foot is a tune from Alabama fiddler Ralph Whited. At least, that's the title that was given to Joyce and Jim Cauthen when they collected the tune years ago, and so that's the name we know it by locally. However, when recorded by Bob White with the Field Recorder's Collective, Mr. Whited called it Crowfoot, so that's the title you'll find it under on the FRC's album of his tunes, titled Old Time Alabama Fiddling.

Ralph Whited lived his whole life in Oneonta, Alabama, northeast of Birmingham. As Joyce Cauthen writes in a bio accomanying the FRC album:

"At 18 Ralph decided to learn to play an instrument. 'I heard somebody playing the fiddle and it sounded so good, I just thought, ‘I wish I could do that.’ And I ordered a fiddle from Sears and Roebuck. I believe it was $4.85. It took me over a year to learn the first tune. I was beginning to give up, but I kept on fooling around and watching fiddlers play, like Roy Sanders and Wilson Buttram—watching them play on my fiddle, wearing my strings out and me a’watching them. I couldn’t play nothing. My brothers played guitar, J.D. and Ward. Fiddlers would come to my home there on Sunday and play with my brothers. I finally went to striking tunes and taking’em up here and yonder.' [...]

"Ralph wasn’t particularly interested in meeting us and he proved to be quite elusive, but finally a friend of his convinced him to come to a session at her house so that we could record him. He wasn’t happy with the results of that session but did get interested in the process. Soon after that his cousin Carter Whited invited us to his home where we recorded Ralph, his brother J.D, and Carter. Two tunes from that session were used on Possum, and J.D. suggested the name of the album based on one of the tunes they played. Much later, after the LP and later CD had come out, he decided the tune was actually 'Raincrow Bill.'"

[This is the first I'm hearing of that "Raincrow Bill" title!]

There aren't many recorded versions of this tune to go off of, but:

Here's the recording on Slippery Hill

Here it is on the FRC album, where it's titled "Crowfoot"

This is the Cauthen's band, Red Mountain White Trash, playing it in a medley with another Whited tune called Sam Hill (a previous TOTW choice of mine)

Here's the Cauthen's other band, Flying Jenny, playing it as a standalone tune

Here's the tune played solo on banjo

If you're interested in learning the tune...

Here's a tab I wrote for the way I play it in the video above, based largely on the Flying Jenny version above. The tune is four parts and weirdly crooked, with an extra beat at the beginning of the fourth part, and another at the end.

I look forward to hearing other versions of this great tune! If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments. 

Edited by - PorterBranch on 08/08/2025 05:50:22

JanetB - Posted - 08/09/2025:  14:00:14

Thanks for the rare 4-part tune, Porter, and for offering another tune from Alabama, and for your energetic playing, like the wild turkeys here who are always close by.  They do a lot of scratching and if I rake the cut weeds, I have to haul the piles right away or they'll scratch them, looking for something that isn't there (bugs? seeds?). And they scratch in the ash pile, maybe to cover themselves with ashes for some biological reason I don't know yet (pests? protection from heat?).  But perhaps the title is Crowfeet or Raincrow Bill.  I guess we'll never know.

Here's my Turkey Foot, on the gentler side, working from the solo on Slippery Hill.  I like Ralph Whited's slides.  The crooked endings add to it.  

Turkey Foot (TOTW)

Turkey Foot (CH) tab

John Yerxa - Posted - 08/10/2025:  01:35:08

I had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time with Jim and Joyce Cauthen at The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in July. We heard the anecdotes and field recordings first hand, then played the tunes with them - this one, Sam Hill, and others from Whited, Sam McCracken, and others. A lovely couple, and a national treasure.

PorterBranch - Posted - 08/11/2025:  04:26:09

quote:

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Originally posted by JanetB

Thanks for the rare 4-part tune, Porter, and for offering another tune from Alabama, and for your energetic playing, like the wild turkeys here who are always close by.  They do a lot of scratching and if I rake the cut weeds, I have to haul the piles right away or they'll scratch them, looking for something that isn't there (bugs? seeds?). And they scratch in the ash pile, maybe to cover themselves with ashes for some biological reason I don't know yet (pests? protection from heat?).  But perhaps the title is Crowfeet or Raincrow Bill.  I guess we'll never know.

Here's my Turkey Foot, on the gentler side, working from the solo on Slippery Hill.  I like Ralph Whited's slides.  The crooked endings add to it.  

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Terrific playing as always! I always get new ideas for playing these tunes from your versions. 

 

And I know very little about turkeys, but I know my chickens do the same thing with ash piles. It's called a dust bath, and you're right — it's exactly for cleaning pests, oils, etc. out of their feathers. 

PorterBranch - Posted - 08/11/2025:  04:27:26

quote:

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Originally posted by John Yerxa

I had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time with Jim and Joyce Cauthen at The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in July. We heard the anecdotes and field recordings first hand, then played the tunes with them - this one, Sam Hill, and others from Whited, Sam McCracken, and others. A lovely couple, and a national treasure.

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The Cauthens are great, both as musicians and people. I couldn't tell you how many tunes I've learned from them!