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"Katydid" is an American reel in cut or 4/4 time in C Major ('A' part) and A Minor
('B' part). The parts are played AAB (Silberberg), AABB (Brody, Reiner & Anick) or
AA'BB' (Phillips).
North Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes recorded the tune in this third session, in 1929, with guitarist Mike Whitten. Stokes' "Katydid" was backed with "Take Me Back to Georgia" and some confusion of titles existed because many labels were reversed on the 78 RPM record; thus, some fiddlers called "Katydid" by the name "Take Me Back to Georgia"; furthermore, both tunes are in the key of 'C' major. However, "Take Me Back to Georgia" is instead related to "The Boston Boy"/ "Ladies in the Ballroom"/ "Rattlesnake Bit the Baby". Fiddlin' John Carson used the minor mode second strain of "Katy Did" as part of his recording of "Billy in the Lowground". It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), Larsen's Fiddler Magazine vol. 25, No. 3, Fall 2018, Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of Ameriand Fiddle Tunes (2011), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994), Reiner & Anick's Old Time Fiddling Across America (1989) and Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002). It was recorded by Lowe Stokes & Mike Whitten (1929) (78 RPM), Lowe Stokes on Hell Broke Loose in Georgia (Orig. rec. 1929) and Lowe Stokes, vol. 1: 1927-1930 (reissue). |