Annotation:Old Aunt Kate (1)

Find traditional instrumental music
Revision as of 23:40, 15 October 2014 by Andrew (talk | contribs)

Back to Old Aunt Kate (1)

OLD AUNT KATE [1]. AKA - "Old Aunt Katy," "Old Aunt Katy there's a Bug on Me." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Nebraska. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Iowa fiddler Dwight Lamb played this tune under the title "Possum Up a Gum Stump" (see Rounder 0529).

Couplets described as coming from a play-party song called "Old Aunt Katy" were printed by Brown (1952), but may also have been used for a fiddle tune a la "Old Dan Tucker" ("Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Patched my breeches right full of holes"). The lines "Old Aunt Kate there's a bug on me", apparently a floating verse, are also contained in a version of "Buffalo Gals (1)" called "Alabama Girl" collected in a manuscript (Atlanta History Center MSS 1003.10.15):

Chorus: Alabama girl (or gal) won't you come out tonight,
Come out tonight, come out tonight?
Alabama girl (or gal) won't you come out tonight,
And dance in the light of the moon?

Danced with a girl with a hole in her stockin'
And her heel kept a rockin', and her heel kept a rockin'
Danced with a girl with a hole in her stockin'
And danced in the light of the moon.

Old Aunt Kate got a bug on me,
Got a bug on me, got a bug on me.
Old Aunt Kate got a bug on me,
But there ain't no bug on you.


Source for notated version: Bob Walters (Burt County, Nebraska) [Christeson].

Printed sources: R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; No. 93, p. 66.

Recorded sources: June Appal Records, Uncle Charlie Osborne - "The June Appal Recordings" (2008).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear a field recording of Bob Walters playing the tune at Slippery Hill [2]



Back to Old Aunt Kate (1)

Retrieved from "https://ttadev.org/w/index.php?title=Annotation:Old_Aunt_Kate_(1)&oldid=201622"