John Katon's Tune

African American Fiddler Bill Katon's Son

This is a recording of John Katon playing and un-named fiddle tune. John was the son of Bill Katon. See my previous article which is linked at the bottom of this post.

I obtained the recording third or maybe even fourth hand. The audio quality is consistent with this - meaning it’s pretty awful. The original was made by R. P. Christeon in 1950 using a Webster-Chicago wire recorder. R. P. then “air-dubbed” it with an introduction onto reel-to-reel tape for his friend Keith Orchard of Fulton, MO, who had know Bill Katon and learned tunes from him. I got it from Kenneth “Polly” Burre who lived at Tebbetts. There might have been other “dubs” between my recording and Polly letting me record his tape, also through the air and onto an audiocassette.

As mentioned the recording starts with an introduction by R. P. and then the tune follows. I’ve provided my transcription of the introduction below.

…one time…and I came down here one summer and uh hunted up Bill Katon’s son…he was then living in Jeff (Jefferson City) and we got in the car and went over to Tebbetts to where Ola Gathright was living and then uh tried to play (garbled) his son John at the time didn’t have any fiddle and I had one with me that wasn’t much count. But, uh, he played several pieces, and this one is fairly typical. Now this was on July 6th, 1950. (garbled).

Here’s the recording. It’s a pretty nice little tune.

I’ve transcribed it as best I can into standard notation and mandolin TAB.