Cotton Eyed Joe is one of the most widespread and well-known of American fiddle tunes. This fine Arkansas version is one not often heard: it utilizes the GDAD fiddle tuning. Grey got it long ago from The Fiddle Book by Marion Thede. The author credits the tune to John Hendricks of Bates, Arkansas. According to Marion Thede, “cotton eyed” is a term “… descriptive of a person with very light blue eyes.”