Annotation:Pretty Little Cat
PRETTY LITTLE CAT. American, Reel. USA, West Virginia. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Douglas): AABB. Usually played at a relaxed tempo. "Pretty Little Cat" is a more major sounding tune than "Pretty Little Dog" from West Virginia fiddler Lee Tiplett (1897-1982), who told similar stories about the origin of the two tunes (for which see "annotation:Pretty Little Dog"). Some see similarities between "Pretty Little Cat" and "June Apple/Appal," "Kitchen Girl" and "Sandy Boys."
The transcription by Nigel Gatherer has been discovered by musician John Ivy to actually be "Henry Reed's Breakdown." John recognized the tune thought he recognized as "Pretty Little Cat" being played at a contra dance in Austin, Texas, by Eden MacAdam-Somer and Notorious. However, after speaking with Eden after the dance, he learned that their title for it was "Henry Reed's Breakdown." He notice that Nigel remarked on his "Tune of the Week" site, “This is an American Old-Time tune which I learned from a French musician called Cathy Castet. Recently she told me she’d got the name wrong, but I guess I’m stuck with this title.” John compared sound recordings and transcriptions and concluded Nigel's tune was misnamed, and in the spirit of accuracy has shared the corrected information. Nigel's misnamed tune has been left in this entry for comparison, for "Henry Reed's Breakdown," while a different tune, has similar melodic and harmonic content.
