KATY DID [1]. American, Reel (cut or whole time). USA; north Georgia, northeast Alabama. C Major ('A' part), A Aeolian ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Silberberg): AABB (Brody, Reiner & Anick): AA'BB' (Phillips). A tune by this name was mentioned in reports (1926-31) of the De Kalb County (northeast Alabama) Annual (Fiddlers') Convention (Cauthen, 1990). In the 'B' part the 'E' chord played during the accompaniment may be either major or minor. North Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes recorded the tune in this third session, in 1929, with guitarist Mike Whitten. Stokes' "Katy Did" was backed with "Take Me Back to Georgia," and some confusion of titles existed because many labels were reversed on the 78 RPM record; thus some fiddlers called "Katy Did" by the name "Take Me Back to Georgia"; furthermore, both tunes are in the key of 'C' major. However "Take Me Back to Georgia" is instead related to "Boston Boy"/"Ladies in the Ballroom (2)"/"Rattlesnake Bit the Baby." Fiddlin' John Carson used the minor mode second strain of "Katy Did [1}" as part of his recording of "Billy in the Lowground (1)." Stokes 1929 "Katy Did" also goes by the title "Gray Eagle." The Hometown Boys. Lowe Stokes is on right, with guitar
Additional notes Source for notated version : - Lowe Stokes (north Ga.) [Brody, Stecher/Fiddler Mag, Milliner & Koken, Phillips]; Howie Meltzer [Silberberg].
Printed sources : - Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 154. Larsen (Fiddler Magazine), vol. 25, No. 3, Fall 2018; p. 32. Milliner & Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of Ameriand Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 356. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; p. 130. Reiner & Anick (Old Time Fiddling Across America), 1989; p. 112. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 82.
Recorded sources : - Columbia 15486-D (78 RPM), Lowe Stokes & Mike Whitten (1929).
County 514, Lowe Stokes – "Hell Broke Loose in Georgia" (Orig. rec. 1929).
Document 8045, "Lowe Stokes, vol. 1: 1927-1930" (reissue).
See also listing at : Hear Lowe Stokes 1929 recording at the Internet Archive [1][2]
