(Fiddlin') Hurts So Good

I just took a Tylenol. Not because I'm illin'. Not because I have a headache. But rather than have a glass of wine and get all caught up in a conversation or two and be up past my bedtime (which sadly I already am with a 5:4? alarm--yes, I am a wimp) I am going to force my body to relax a little.

I have aches. And pains. After a bit of instruction on Sunday I have rededicated myself to actually playing competently on the fiddle. I've decided to focus in earnest on two or three tunes over the course of the next week or two.

One favorite, seasonally appropriate, is Katy Bar the Door.

The phrase is a metaphor for "shit's about to hit the fan" in some way or another. With our recent weather and impending other events, not to mention the boatload of work that just drifted ashore at the office, it's probably something I'll be saying or thinking more often. Lucky for me it's also a catchy fiddle tune.

The recording I have is Rayna Gellert playing with Susie Goering on their release, Starch & Iron, a wonderful compilation featuring these two old-timey talents. As popular a tune as this is, I found very little about it on the Internet, and no rhapsody or even Digital Library of Appalachia recordings (the former is not a surprise, but the latter certainly is). So I guess I'll really have to work on it.

I can't even include a little snippet, because Rayna and Susie sell these out of Susie's home, not on Amazon.com.

So go check it out and get you one. And go rest up, because every day is a bar-the-door kind of day anymore.