The 1995 American country folk song, “Cotton Eye Joe,” by the Rednex has had many of us, both younger and older, dancing along for over two decades. Even those who aren’t into country folk enjoy singing and dancing to this upbeat tune. In fact, some of us still know every lyric, step, kick, shuffle, turn, clap, and stomp!
Although we may have rehearsed the line dance to “Cotton Eye Joe” on numerous occasions and have seen plenty of other groups perform the dance in front of us, musical renditions of the song are more underrated in comparison. However, in one viral video, a young woman performs an acoustic version of the Rednex’s song on her fiddle while doing dance moves of her own in a three-way split video. The Internet can’t get enough!
In the rendition featuring Hillary, who was tripled in the video so we could capture her playing all three fiddle parts, she is dressed appropriately for the occasion in a light-colored blouse, a pair of ripped jean shorts, and brown cowgirl boots.
A great way to describe Hillary’s version of “Cotton Eye Joe” is higher-pitched, slower-paced, more traditional, but nevertheless, still certainly danceable.
Apart from the peaceful rendition itself, watching each of the three Hillarys in the video not only play during their part but also dance their assigned moves at the right time makes it apparent just how much work the musician put into this performance!
Toward the end of the performance, Hillary explains more about the production of the video: “I had so much fun making this video, but it was so complicated. I’ve never done anything so intricate. We tried different locations; we actually were on our third location. We tried outside…nighttime, daytime,” until they finally settled on filming the video in a parking garage.
“I had to do like take, after take, after take. I kept messing up because, in my mind, I had to separate the three different parts, the three different fiddles,” Hillary further explains. While there was surely confusion and complexity for everyone involved in the making of the video, in the end, it turned out splendid. In fact, it has reached over half a million views on Facebook to date!
Apart from having an impeccable ability to play the fiddle, Hillary is also experienced in guitar-, viola-, and mandolin-playing; buckdancing; singing; composing and arranging; music-reading; teaching; and workshop-hosting. While she appears very young in the video, Nashville-based Hillary holds a bachelor’s from Tennessee State University and has seven-plus years of musical teaching up her sleeve.
The woman’s acoustic rendition of “Cotton Eye Joe” won’t be something that you’ll want to miss. Although it is not as upbeat as the original, the violin version the musician performs is absolutely beautiful and impressive!
Check out the performance in the video below!
