C. Nyal de Kaye
New member
I am on certain Banjo forums and wrote this for them.
It is an unusual happening, so I repeat it here as it seemed to me to be a rare and somewhat humorous thing.
I will offer a lot more explanation on this Forum than was necessary to all the old time Banjo people.
I was working in my yard today and thought that I would listen to an old time singer named Roscoe Holcomb.
Possibly you have never heard of Roscoe, but he was from Kentucky and had a style of Mountain Music all his own.
He had a high pitched voice, a bit nasal and very raw.
He was a backwoodsman and grew up in an era when outside influences did not affect the music the mountain people played.
Many do not like Roscoe Holcomb, but I like the honesty of his music as there is no attempt by him to be anything but himself, take it or leave it.
I take it, and I used to sell Roscoe's CD's in my music business some years ago now.
So I turned Roscoe on and set iTunes on my computer to its loudest setting, so that I could hear him as I was digging out in the garden.
I was digging away (not happily, but to please my wife) when suddenly the chickens next door went quite berserk. In Australia we call chickens "chooks", it rhymes with books.
They were clucking away very loudly. My neighbour came out to calm them, but they continued and seemed to be in real distress. Cats and foxes distress them, but there were none of them about the place.
Then, for some reason, I wondered if old Roscoe may be the problem.
I went in and turned him off.
Bingo! The chooks settled down instantly!
So, dear friends, if your chooks stop laying, or get distressed, check and see if someone is playing Roscoe Holcomb's music.
I had no idea that my neighbours chooks had such bad taste.
It is an unusual happening, so I repeat it here as it seemed to me to be a rare and somewhat humorous thing.
I will offer a lot more explanation on this Forum than was necessary to all the old time Banjo people.
I was working in my yard today and thought that I would listen to an old time singer named Roscoe Holcomb.
Possibly you have never heard of Roscoe, but he was from Kentucky and had a style of Mountain Music all his own.
He had a high pitched voice, a bit nasal and very raw.
He was a backwoodsman and grew up in an era when outside influences did not affect the music the mountain people played.
Many do not like Roscoe Holcomb, but I like the honesty of his music as there is no attempt by him to be anything but himself, take it or leave it.
I take it, and I used to sell Roscoe's CD's in my music business some years ago now.
So I turned Roscoe on and set iTunes on my computer to its loudest setting, so that I could hear him as I was digging out in the garden.
I was digging away (not happily, but to please my wife) when suddenly the chickens next door went quite berserk. In Australia we call chickens "chooks", it rhymes with books.
They were clucking away very loudly. My neighbour came out to calm them, but they continued and seemed to be in real distress. Cats and foxes distress them, but there were none of them about the place.
Then, for some reason, I wondered if old Roscoe may be the problem.
I went in and turned him off.
Bingo! The chooks settled down instantly!
So, dear friends, if your chooks stop laying, or get distressed, check and see if someone is playing Roscoe Holcomb's music.
I had no idea that my neighbours chooks had such bad taste.
