"Katy Bar the Door", also known as "Katie, Bar the Door" is an American reel in cut time
and G Major. The parts are played AA'BB'.
The tune is known from the banjo and fiddle playing of Grayson County, southwest
Virginia musician Roscoe Parish (1897-1984).
The phrase "Katie, bar the door" is an Americanism that roughly means "Watch out,
there's trouble ahead and you'd better be ready". The phrase can be traced in print
to the latter 19th century, where it appears in the newspaper The Louisiana Democrat
of Alexandria, Louisiana of October, 1872:
The Custom House Packet, with the Custom House colored band, U.S. Marshal Packard, in command, with the old flag triumphantly kissing the breeze of old Red, the band playing "Katie, Bar The Door" and with waving rags touched the wharf and proceeded to land her precious cargo.There are several speculations about the origin of the phrase, some dating to incidents in the British Isles. William and Mary Morris’s book The Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins suggests that it derives from a traditional ballad, most probably the medieval Scots one usually entitled "Get Up and Bar the Door". The tune is usually played as an instrumental, although these words have been collected with it: Katy bar your door,The banjo tablature is by John Letscher. His notes: From Rayna Gellert's Starch and Iron CD mostly. First learned from playing with John Lamancusa. Has a "Grandpa's Hat" feel to it. Not meaning what's in the hat. The reference is to "Fire in the Log", also known as "Who Shit in Grandpa's Hat".It was recorded by The Harmony Sisters on The Harmony Sisters: The Early Years (1999), Roscoe Parish on The Old Time Way (1986. Originally recorded in 1974) and Rayna Gellert & Susie Goering on Starch and Iron (2012). |