Fox on the Run is one of the most requested songs in bluegrass history. It did not start in bluegrass. Tony Hazzard wrote it in 1968 as a British pop-rock number, and Manfred Mann took it to No. 5 on the UK singles chart. Two years after that, a pair of Washington, D.C. pickers turned it into a bluegrass anthem, and fans have shouted for it ever since.
Where it came from
Tony Hazzard, an English songwriter, said the song began as a picture in his head: a summer day and a field of grain sloping down to a river. Manfred Mann cut it as a slow rock ballad and released the single in late 1968. It reached No. 5 in Britain in early 1969.
Banjo player Bill Emerson heard the pop record and handed the words to his partner, singer Cliff Waldron. Their group, Emerson and Waldron and the New Shades of Grass, made the first bluegrass recording in 1969 at Unity Recording Studio in Washington, D.C. It came out in 1970 on the Rebel album Bluegrass Country. Emerson rejoined the Country Gentlemen in 1969. That band (Charlie Waller, Emerson, Jimmy Gaudreau, and Bill Yates, with Mike Auldridge guesting on resonator guitar) cut the song for Sound Off, released by Rebel in 1971. Their version made it a standard. Tom T. Hall’s 1976 single from The Magnificent Music Machine reached No. 9 on the Billboard country chart and carried the song to country radio. Hazzard has said he loves the covers, and that the vocal lines fit bluegrass harmony. He wrote an extra verse for his live shows and gave bluegrass bands his blessing to sing it.
How it works
It is a verse-chorus song, and the chorus comes first. The Country Gentlemen open with a banjo kick, then hit the chorus in stacked harmony. All four Gentlemen sang on Sound Off, with Waller on lead. Many bands sing the opening chorus a cappella and bring the instruments in at the verse.
The chorus moves 1, 5, 2 minor, 4, then 2 minor, 5, 4, 1. The 2 minor chord is the hook. It is a pop move, and it makes the song stand out in a night of 1-4-5 material. The Country Gentlemen recorded it in B at 128 beats per minute. Jam chord sheets list typical keys from G to B, and pickers report Emerson doing it in B or C. Call it in B if you want the record. Drop to G or A when the singer needs room. In the early 1970s it ranked with Rocky Top among the most requested bluegrass songs, the kind fans yelled for at every festival set. Stage bands wore it out. The bluegrass jam never let it go: the chords take one pass to learn, and the chorus rewards every voice you can stack on it.
Recordings worth hearing
Start with Manfred Mann’s 1968 single to hear how far the song traveled. Emerson and Waldron’s cut on Bluegrass Country (Rebel, 1970) is the first bluegrass version, with Mike Auldridge on dobro. The Country Gentlemen’s Sound Off track (Rebel, 1971) is the standard text, the one jams copy. Their Live in Japan set, taped at a 1970 concert with Doyle Lawson on mandolin and released on Rebel, opens with the song in front of a roaring crowd. Tom T. Hall’s take on The Magnificent Music Machine (1976) is the hit version, loose and country. Tony Trischka recorded an arrangement that keeps Manfred Mann’s key changes, a rare choice among bluegrass covers. The Zac Brown Band has cut it too, proof the song keeps finding new singers. For more songs like this one, see the songbook.
Sources
Facts on this page come from Bluegrass Today’s songwriter interview with Tony Hazzard, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame biography of Bill Emerson, Wayne Erbsen’s song history at Native Ground, the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association song page, the Pickers Guide entry on the Country Gentlemen recording, the ibiblio bluegrass discography record for Bluegrass Country, Bluegrass Today’s review of Live in Japan, Songfacts, and a Banjo Hangout song history thread and chord sheet.