Citaco

CITACO. AKA - "Citigo," "Citico." AKA and see "Down to the Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; north Georgia, Tennessee. GDad or AEae tuning (fiddle). Citaco is an area north and east of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The melody is known as a north Georgia tune. It was, for example, in the repertoire of north Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes (1898-1983, who played with the Skillet Lickers as well as other bands) who learned it under the title "Down to the Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." However, when Stokes recorded the tune in 1930 on his Brunswick Records 78 with his band Lowe Stokes' Swamp Rooters, it was titled "Citaco" (played in GDad tuning). Some versions sound similar to versions of "Cotton Eyed Joe," as, for example, played John Dykes (of the Dykes Magic City String Band) GDad tuning, and as recorded by Marion Thede in her Fiddle Book. North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin's version of "Citaco" (recorded in 1942 in the field by Artus Moser) is similar to the Kentucky tune "Calico."

Marcus Martin

Martin sang this verse to the tune:

Way down in the old Citaco,
The girls they plow and the boys they hoe;
That’s the way they do in the old Citaco,
That’s the way they do in the old Citaco.

Source for notated version: Marcus Marin (N.C.) [Milliner & Koken].

Printed Source: Milliner & Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes). 2011; p. 112.

Recorded sources: County 527, The Swamp Rooters (Lowe Stokes) - "Old Time Fiddle Classics, vol. 2: Original Recordings 1927-1934." Document DOCD8045, Lowe Stokes in Chronological Order, vol. 1: 1927-1930 (1999 reissue; appears as "Citago").

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index [1].
Hear Lowe Stokes' recording at Juneberry 78's [2]
Hear Marcus Martin's recording at Slippery Hill [3]

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