Tim OBrien Band "Cluck Old Hen" 7/20/02 Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, E Ancramdale, NY

The Tim O'Brien Band with Casey Driessen, Mark Schatz and Jim Hurst perform "Cluck Old Hen" on July 20, 2002
at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in E Ancramdale, NY. Brought to you by Less Than Face Productions.

[@ObieTriceratops]

First time I heard this song was on vacation with my younger brother. Wed spent the morning hiking down into the Grand Canyon, about 2 miles in I twisted my ankle a bit and so we decided to turn around. As the afternoon turned late we pulled some magic mushrooms out of the pack, chewed them up and found a comfy spot on the rim of the canyon to watch the sunset. One of the most beautiful sights id ever seen, the reds and orange and brown of the canyon mirrored above in the thin bands of clouds catching the suns departing rays. Night came quick and we started our limping trek back to the parking lot. The night sky was unbelievably clear and calm. You could make out satellites zooming past amongst the countless stars backed by the faint glow of the milky way. It must have been 2am when we finally reached the car. On the short drive back to the hotel we found one of the seldom few radio stations broadcasting way out in the desert, some small town bit featuring old timey folk songs. The original recording of cluck old hen was the nights feature track. The tiredness of a long days trek, the waning effects of the mushrooms, and the strumming of a banjo on a crackling old record hitching a ride on radio waves spun up more than a hundred years after their debut left me with a smile i haven’t found since. That old hens a good hen, that night she laid eggs for two men.