Throw The Old Cow Over The Fence: A Song History

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"Throw The Old Cow Over The Fence" is an old-time reel in G major, built from two repeated strains, which the Traditional Tune Archive files among tunes of the central United States.[1] The Archive gives as its source Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters, a Nashville-based band whose 1928 record of the tune was issued on Vocalion 5238.[2] The Discography of American Historical Recordings lists the band's performance among the sides it made for Brunswick on March 3, 1928, describing it as string-band music with dance calls.[3] According to the Archive, the fiddler on this side was W. J. "Bill" Barrett rather than the group's usual fiddler, Oscar Stone, and County Records brought the track back in 1976 on Nashville: The Early String Bands, Vol. 1.[2] The sources consulted here give no earlier printed or recorded version of the tune.[1][2]

Wood engraving of a spotted cow standing beside a wooden fence

Charles Jacque, A Cow, wood engraving, ca. 1853. A cow at a rail fence, engraved in France in the 1850s, shown as a nod to the tune's title; the engraving has no connection to the tune.

Bate, born in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, in 1875, trained in medicine at Vanderbilt and served as a surgeon in the Spanish-American War, and he played harmonica in his band.[4][2] The Sumner County Museum credits the Possum Hunters with being the first string band on the WSM barn dance that became the Grand Ole Opry, starting in 1925, and says announcer George Hay gave them their name.[5] Another Archive entry places the band's 1928 recording session in Atlanta, Georgia.[6] Bate died in 1936, but the Possum Hunters stayed on as an Opry act for decades after his death.[4][2]

The tune closes the alphabetical list of 28 DAD-tuned pieces in Larry Conger's Hoedowns And Breakdowns, a Fingers Of Steel download that pairs each mountain dulcimer arrangement with its own MP3 recording.[7]

Our book that contains the song "Throw The Old Cow Over The Fence"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Throw the Old Cow over the Fence".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Throw the Old Cow over the Fence".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Dr. Humphrey Bate Possum Hunters".
  4. American Songwriter: "90 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to This Physician and String Band Leader Who Helped Launch Country Music’s Most Sacred Institution".
  5. Sumner County Museum: "The Story Behind the First Sounds of the Grand Ole’ Opry".
  6. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Old Joe (1)".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Hoedowns And Breakdowns".
  8. Image: Charles Jacque, A Cow, wood engraving, ca. 1853. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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