The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165086   Message #3958390
Posted By: Lighter
25-Oct-18 - 06:38 PM
Thread Name: Midwestern fiddling in the 1850s
Subject: RE: Midwestern fiddling in the 1850s
Actually, "Turkey in the Straw" is more likely derivative of "Natchez Under the Hill," bit the two are so similar that they're essentially variations of the same tune - "Old Zip Coon" (1833). It has been claimed that the progenitor was the English "Rose Tree in Full Bearing," but I hear no real resemblance.

"OZC" is usually attributed to G. W. Dixon (1834), but a newspaper clipping of 1833 associates with Bob Farrell, another blackface performer. "Natchez Under the Hill" appeared in 1839.

The title "Turkey in the Straw" looks like a latecomer. I haven't found it in print before 1893, though the reference is to around 1870.