Cattle in the Cane — Mandolin Tab

Mandolin tab and sheet music with synced audio · Key of A · 120 BPM · 4/4 time · Old-time bluegrass · Beginner

Chords used in this arrangement: A, G, E.

This is a reasonably easy mandolin tab version of Cattle in the Cane.

The earliest known recording of this melody was made in the 1920s by a Texas fiddler named Captain M.J. Bonner, a Civil War veteran who was born in 1847 and lived to 92, and he called it "Yearlings in the Canebreak." What makes the tune genuinely interesting on mandolin is that it pulls a modal switcheroo on you: the A part sits in A Mixolydian (think A major with a flatted seventh that gives it that slightly unresolved, open-air feeling), and then the B part drops into A minor, which is a pretty dramatic shift for such a compact little tune. Your backup guitarist needs a heads-up before you launch in, or they'll get caught flat-footed when the harmony changes. It's well-loved in bluegrass circles as a vehicle for improvisation, especially in that B part, so once you have the melody solid, there's a lot of fun headroom to explore.

This page includes mandolin tablature, standard music notation, and a chord chart — printable as PDF and playable in sync with the original recording. Change the key, slow the tempo down, and loop the bars you want to practise.