I posted some performances of Forked Deer the other day. It’s pronounced Fork-kid Deer by the way. I did find some notes about the name on the Traditional Tune Archive.
“The dance tune known as Forked Deer is regarded as vulgar in the Ozarks, because the title has a double meaning. Forked might refer to the deer’s antlers, but it is also the common Ozark term for ‘horny’, which means sexually excited. The word is always pronounced ‘fork-ed’ , in two syllables. I have seen nice young girls leave a dance when the fiddler began to play Forked Deer. Lon Jordan, veteran fiddler of Farmington, Ark., always called it Forked-Horn Deer when ladies were present. Buster Fellows once played it on a radio program, but the announcer was careful to call it Frisky Deer! (Station KWTO, Springfield, Mo., May 3, 1947.)”

I started with a simple arrangement and will try to learn that well and then maybe learn some fancier variations.

These days most people play it as a two part song AA then BB and repeat. I read online that the early versions of the song were much more complex, often with 3 parts and sometimes with as many as 6 parts. One reference I found suggested that the recording industry may have been a driving force in simplifying and standardizing the song.