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"Katy Hill", also known as "Trap Hill Tune" is an old-time and Bluegrass breakdown from Virginia,
West Virginia, Tennessee, northeast Alabama, Missouri and Nebraska in G Major. The parts are played
AABB (Christeson, Lowinger, Phillips), AB (Brody) or ABC (Beisswenger & McCann).
The melody has widespread currency among American fiddlers in the South and Midwest. North Carolina
fiddler Tommy Jarrell told an interviewer in 1982 he thought the melody derived from
"Piney Woods Gal"
and that
"Sally Johnson"
was in turn derived from "Katy Hill".
"Katy Hill" was popularized by Tennessee's Fiddlin' Arthur Smith and Kentucky mandolinist Bill Monroe
(who recorded it in 1940), but it was also known as a signature tune of north Georgia fiddler Lowe
Stokes (1898-1983), who recorded it in 1928 along with Riley Puckett and Fate Norris.
It was printed in Beisswenger & McCann's Ozarks Fiddle Music (2008), Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983), Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 1 (1973), Lowinger's Bluegrass Fiddle (1974), Phillips' Fiddlecase Tunebook (1989) and Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1 (1994). It was recorded by Paul Warren on America's Greatest Breakdown Player (1930), Charlie Monroe on On the Noonday Jamboree- 1944 (appears as "Going Around the World"), John Ashby on Down on Ashby's Farm, Kenny Baker on Grassy Fiddle Tunes, Lowe Stokes on Lowe Stokes, vol. 1: 1927-1930 (reissue, appears as "Sally Johnson", Smokey Valley Boys on Music of North Carolina (1978), The Puryear Brothers Band on Visits (1981), Bill Monroe on The Father of Bluegrass Music, Oscar and Eugene Wright on Old-Time Fiddle and Guitar Music from West Virginia, Mac Benford & the Woodshed All-Stars on Willow (1996), Bill Long on Fiddle Jam Session, Jim Herd on Old Time Ozark Fiddling and Edden Hammons on Edden Hammons Collection, Disc 2. |