"Black Cat in a Briarpatch" is an American reel in cut time and G Major ('A' part) & C Major ('B' part). The parts are played AABB (Krassen), AA'BB (Phillips) or AA'BB' (Lamancusa). An old-time quadrille (i.e., a tune with each strain in a different key) from the repertoire of Copen, Braxton County, West Virginia, fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-2003). Phillips and Lamancusa reverse the two parts of the tune from Krassen. The melody is 'crooked', or irregular, as it has an extra beat at the end of the 'A' part. The source for the notated version was Melvin Wine (b. 1909), learned from his father Bob Wine (Braxton County, W.Va.). Wine tended to play 'c' notes that occur just prior to a 'd' note in the first strain (usually found at the end of a measure) intonated between natural and sharp. It was printed in Krassen's Masters of Old Time Fiddling (1983), Clare Milliner & Walt Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994) and Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021). It was recorded by Erynn Marshall on Calico (2005) and Melvin Wine on Cold Frosty Morning (1976).