Turkey In The Straw - several recordings

Turkey In The Straw - a bluegrass ukulele piece

Here it is played twice, the second time as a close-up.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ajp1EggZOQo

And here is a rare clip of my grandfather Malachi "Madman" Middleton playing the same piece. It is extraordinary that the Ohana ukulele has not appreciably changed in over a hundred years. "Madman" Middleton, a logger of some notoriety, was as handy with an axe as he was with a ukulele. Although he didn't care much for people, he did have a good side - he liked trees. Here's the brief footage of him playing.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XjIJ-6ufBxY

The piece is quite tricky to play, but, if you would like to have a go, you can download my arrangement and others from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=a18e92d5e21704b1d5a101cf914073b47627c76b3f1e1060

Don't take the comments about my grandfather too seriously.

KEN

Nice. We use Turkey in the Straw as the music for a Mayfest dance for K-2nd graders at my kids school. The kindergarten teacher plays Mandolin and plays it quite fast. This year, I also played ukulele for them, but it was too fast for me to pick so I just strummed the chords. We took video of it, but I'm not sure if the parents would like their kids plastered all over youtube, so I can't post it. Maybe I'll do a video reply with my simpler version.