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Calico
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. Mississippi, South-central Kentucky.
ARTIST: fiddler Stephen B. Tucker
Listen: Jim Bowles- Calico
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Early 1900’s (fiddler Stephen B. Tucker in 1939)
OTHER NAMES: "Johnson Gals" (Leake County Revelers); "Want To Go To A Meeting and Got No Shoes" (Frank and Mollie Kittrel); Johnson Gal (IUMA’s Hobo Pie)
RECORDING INFO: Kittrell, Frank. Great Big Yam Potatoes. Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi (Want to go to Meeting and Got No Shoes) Southern Culture AH002, LP (1985), cut# 15 (Want to go to Meeting and Got No Shoes). IUMA’s Hobo Pie (Johnson Gal) Block, Allan. Alive and Well and Fiddling, (Johnson Gals) Living Folk LFR 104, LP (197?), cut# 11; Gaster, Marvin. Uncle Henry's Favorites, Rounder 0382, CD (1996), cut#21; Leake County Revelers. Traditional Fiddle Music of Mississippi, Vol. 2, County 529, LP (1975), cut# 2; Leake County Revelers. Ballads and Breakdowns of the Golden Era, Columbia CS 9660, LP (196?), cut#B.01; Plank Road String Band. Plank Road String Band, Carryon, LP (1976), cut#A.03.
SOURCES: Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 34a (Johnson Gals); A tune by this name was learned by south-central Kentucky African-American fiddler Jim Bowles (b. 1903) from local musicians, although his cross-tuned version was supposedly not widely known outside his area.(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
NOTES: "Calico" was recorded by African-American fiddler Jim Bowles, Rock Bridge, Monroe County, Kentucky, on August 28, 1959. Field recording by DK Wilgus and Lynwood Montell. Marimac 9060. Fiddle tuned AEae. Listen: Jim Bowles- Calico
According to Jim Nelson, Bowles learned the tune from Thomas Page. According to Jeff Titon the tune is similar to Marcus Marian's "Citago."
The calico lyrics refer to a calico cat. According to legend Japanese sailors would carry a tri-colored cat aboard. They believed that such a cat could give early enough warning of an approaching storm for the vessel to return to port to avoid it, and would also send the cat up the mast to "put the storm devils to flight".
Don't care where in the world I go,
Can't get around for the calico.
Notes Kuntz: "G Major. The 'Calico' fiddle tuning, or AEAC#, was so-called because it is employed in this piece." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The lyrics here also appear in the Leake County Revelers version of “Johnson Gals” which have become the standard version. (See: the Pennsylvania roots group, IUMA’s Hobo Pie, on the web.)
The lyrics below (from Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc) were recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress from the playing of Lauderville County, Mississippi, fiddler Stephen B. Tucker in 1939. The rhyme sung to the tune goes:
Calico- Stephen Tucker
Listen: Jim Bowles- Calico
Don't care where in the world I go,
Can't get around for the calico.
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