“Ole Slew Foot” (also “Old Slewfoot”) was written by Howard Crockett and James C. Webb and is most commonly associated with Johnny Horton’s 1963 country recording, though the song’s life in country and bluegrass extends well beyond that single. The lyric tracks a legendary mountain bear — large, smart, named for his peculiarly shaped foot — and the hunters who can never quite catch him.
The song belongs to a small constellation of country and bluegrass tall-tale pieces in the older comic-narrative tradition, alongside “Big Bad John” and the various John Henry variants. The harmonic shape is straightforwardly traditional, the tempo sits in the brisk-up range, and the chorus’s call-and-response structure makes it a comfortable jam piece.
Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys’ 1965 reading established the song’s bluegrass-canonical shape. Jim McReynolds’s high baritone lead, Jesse’s crosspicked mandolin break, and the Virginia Boys’ tight backing turned the song into a regular call in bluegrass and country sets through the rest of the decade. It works as an up-tempo vocal piece in G with a clear chorus harmony slot.
