Annotation:Rats gone to Rest

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RATS GONE TO REST. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. G Major. The tune was in the repertory of Kentucky fiddler George Lee Hawkins. Mark Wilson writes that Hawkins learned this Bath County, Ky., tune as a boy around 1915 from an African-American farm worker named Bill Trumbo. Hawkins was a good fiddler by all reports, and learned complicated hornpipe pieces from fiddlers in Ohio and Indiana. When naming the tune he always appended as an aside “…with D-Con” (a pesticide). Jeff Titon (2001) notes the low part is similar to Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes’ “Citaco.”

Source for notated version: George Hawkins (1904-1991, Bethel, Bath County, Ky., 1974) [Titon].

Printed sources: Titon (Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 134, p. 161.

Recorded sources: Light and Hitch - "Light and Hitch" (2007). Rounder CD 0376, George Hawkins (et al) – “Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, vol. 1: Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers” (1997). Rounder Heritage Series 1166-11592-2, George Hawkins (et al) – “The Art of Traditional Fiddle” (2001).

See also listing at:
Hear/see various youtube versions [1][2][3]

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