I’ve chosen Citico for this installment of TOTW.
Here’s the excerpt from the Traditional Tune Archive:
“ CITACO. AKA - "Citigo," "Citico." AKA and see "Down to the Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; north Georgia, Tennessee. GDad or AEae tuning (fiddle). Citaco is an area north and east of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The melody is known as a north Georgia tune. It was, for example, in the repertoire of north Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes (1898-1983, who played with the Skillet Lickers as well as other bands) who learned it under the title "Down to the Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." However, when Stokes recorded the tune in 1930 on his Brunswick Records 78 with his band Lowe Stokes' Swamp Rooters, it was titled "Citaco" (played in GDad tuning). Some versions sound similar to versions of "Cotton Eyed Joe," as, for example, played John Dykes (of the Dykes Magic City String Band) GDad tuning, and as recorded by Marion Thede in her Fiddle Book. North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin's version of "Citaco" (recorded in 1942 in the field by Artus Moser) is similar to the Kentucky tune "Calico."
“Martin sang this verse to the tune:
Way down in the old Citaco,
The girls they plow and the boys they hoe;
That’s the way they do in the old Citaco,
That’s the way they do in the old Citaco”.
Citico is an actual location with a long history. Here’s the Wikipedia link for those with an interest in such things. Wikipedia Citico Entry
In the 1970’s Ron Williams collected a version of Citico from the Barbee Brothers of Soddy, Tennessee. The late Charles Wolfe, writing in the liner notes for Williams’ Pine Breeze field recordings release, had this to say: “CITICO was named after a creek in Monroe County, right on the Tennessee-North Carolina line, just a few miles from the borders of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was a favorite of Lowe Stokes, one of the greatest of southern fiddlers in the 20s, who performed and recorded with the famed band The Skillet Lickers. Stokes lived for a time in the Chattanooga area, and in 1930 put together a studio band called The Swamp Rooters to make the first record of CITICO”.
The Barbee Brothers can be heard playing Citico at the 1978 National Folk Festival in Washington D.C. here: Barbee Brothers Citico
Stokes’ 1930 commercial recording is here: Stokes' Citaco
Bert Layne, who played with Stokes in several different bands, including on occasion, the Skillet Lickers provided this remembrance of the Citaco recording session in a 1976 interview. Bert Layne Citaco Interview . Stokes was evidently a bit of a rounder with a penchant for whiskey, married women, and rough bars. Layne recounts stories from their days on the road together here: Stokes' Stories
Here are string band renditions by the Red Hots , Triple Chicken Foot , and the Chicken Chokers .
A banjo/fiddle duet by Dean and Judy Robinson is here: Dean and Judy Robinson
And here’s a fine post by Dean Barber, my go-to guy on the Hangout music archive: Citico by Barber, Townsend, and Overby
I was unable to find a tab for Citico but Ron Williams has a video lesson for the Barbee version here: Ron Williams Citico Video Lesson
Viewers are encouraged to post observations, opinions, performances and tabs contributing to this thread.
A happy 2016 to all.
