Hell among the Yearlings [music transcription]

Key: D
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-4)
Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed.
Compass: 17
Title change: The title appears on the transcription as "Hell among the Yearlin's."
Rendition: 1r-2r-1r-2r-1r-tag
Phrase Structure: ABCD QRQS (abac defg qrst qrs'u)
Related Tune(s): Rounding Up the Cattle
Handwritten: Recorded: ABABA. Triplet tendency.
"Hell among the Yearlings" (sometimes known in bowdlerized forms such as "Rounding Up the Cattle") is a tune of the Upper South. It was recorded by West Virginian Clark Kessinger on an early hillbilly record with an irregular first strain that lingers on the high A and requires two extra beats. Nearly all current versions in bluegrass style or in contest fiddling circles perpetuate this irregularity, but Henry Reed's set has the normal number of bars and beats.