Annotation:Knocking Around the Kitchen

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KNOCKING AROUND THE KITCHEN. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Missouri. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BAACC'. A 'crooked' (irregular measured) tune from the playing of Jim Herd (1919-2002), born in Eastview, Missouri. Herd moved to Washington State in 1951, but retained his Missouri style, learned from listening to Lonnie Robertson and other fiddlers. The title (but not the music), is a variant of other similar titles (see "Hanging Around the Kitchen ('till the Cook Comes Home)," "If You Can't Stand the Heat Get Out of the Kitchen" (Dean Johnston) and "Wait in the Kitchen (Till the Cook Comes In)," tunes that are themselves melodically related to "Redman's Reel," "Richmond Cotillion," "Run Them Coons in the Ground," "Jackson's Breakdown," "Old Richmond."). Herd's "Knocking Around the Kitchen" is melodically related to "Cuttin' at the Pint/Point." An early recording of the tune is by Jess Hillard on 78 RPM in 1933.

Source for notated version: Jim Herd [Beisswenger & McCann].

Printed sources: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 56.

Recorded sources: Rounder CD0437, Jim Herd - "Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, vol. 3" (2000. Various artists).

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