The Kitchen Girl reel

I’ve put up posts about "New England" tunes, when I do this I’m referring to the now almost dead New England Music Tradition. It was a conglomeration of Scottish, English, Irish & (later) French Canadian. It also borrows heavily from the Fife & drum rep. The Fiddler’s Fakebook has a good blurb about New England music that is vague, but on the money….

"Many New England musicians hold danceability as the yardstick with which to measure a fiddler’s playing. Some play in an ornamented style a la Irish or Scottish & some in a simpler English fashion. While many of the tunes are specifically New English (New English??) many are also of celtic origin"
-Fiddler’s Fakebook

Some other Tunes popualr in the New England Tradition are:
Haste to the Wedding
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Merrily Kissed the Quaker
Teviot Bridge
Avalon Reel
Banish Misfortune
Black Nag
Bonnie Kate (older scottish single reel version)
Etc.

This isn’t what’s played in irish sessions in New England, this is a subset within the bigger picture of "Celtic" music.

~b

A great tune, this. I have heard it now and again in some of the less traditional Irish sessions. Does anyone hear the resemblance to the Shetland reel, ‘The New Rigged Ship’ (another ‘foreign’ tune which has found its way into Irish sessions)?

The B part is what makes this tune interesting, with some fine syncopation.

This how I use to play "Kitchen Girl":

X: 1
T: Kitchen Girl, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
a4g4 | efed c2 cd | e2 f2 gaba | g2 e2 e4|
e2 a2 g2 ag | efed cdef | g2 d2 efed | c2A2A4 :|
ABcA BA G2 | ABAG E2 EG | ABcd e>=f e2 |
ABcA BA G2 | ABAG E2 AB cBAc BA G2 | A4 A4 :|

"Kitchen Girl" and "New Rigged (New-Riggit) Ship" indeed resemble each other—in fact, you can hear this resemblance very clearly on the Boys of the Lough "Good Friends—Good Music" CD (Philo 1051) where the two are played in succession on track 9.

It’s safe to say that the ONLY source for all USA versions of Kitchen Girl stem from the A Jabbour’s collection from Virginia fiddler Henry Reed… Though this is the case, the tune still has many modern variants…

nigelg’s abcs are a picture of the whole tune, while the one posted here at the session (sheet music) is just the high part with a 2nd variation of that part…

The ending phrase "cBAc BA G2" seems to be the American generic filler ending to many "modal" tunes and gets under my skin a little….

try this ending phrase with the tune—

| c2 A2 GDAG | E2 A2 A4 :|

It is powerful to drop to that low D…

But dont take my word for it….

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=afcreed&fileName=reedt019/afcreedreedt019.db&recNum=0&itemLink=S?ammem/afcreed:@field(TITLE+@od1(Kitchen+Girl++transcription+))

I dont use the word awesome very often but that transcription and Reed’s variations would fit the bill.

Only if you consider Virginia to be New England , would this fit as a "New England" tune as referenced previously… which having family in Virginia, I think you’d get a funny look by calling it NEw England

This is more or less how I have it. I first heard it played by the Hollow Rock String Band, and it has since been coloured by my own fallible memory:

X: 1
T: Kitchen Girl, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Amix
a4g4 | efed c2 cd | e2 ef gaba | g2 e2 e4|
a2af gagf | efed cdef | g2d2 efed | c2A2A4 :|
AB=cA BAGB | ABAG EDEG | A2B2=c2d2 | e3f e4|
AB=cA BAGB | ABAG EGAB | =c2A2 BAG2 | A3B A4 :|

I’ve also heard an alternative ending to the A-part:

M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Amix
a4g4 | efed c2 cd | e2 ef gaba | g2 e2 e4|
a2af gagf | efed c2cB | ABcd efed | c2A2A4 :|

And there’s considerable variation as to where the long notes are and where the quaver(1/8-note)-runs are.

and another B part variation from South Yorkshire
K: D
A/B/|:=ccBB|A/B/A/G/ E A/B/|
=ccBB|^c2cA/B/|=ccBB|A/B/A/G/ E E/F/|GEDB,|A,2A,:|

I learnt this with the B part it A minor… Not sure where from either…

Miles Krassen’s 1973 book *Appalachian FIddle* attributes the version printed there to Oscar Wright but learned from Henry Reed. He also says modal tunes of this type were most common in parts of WVA & eastern KY, a modality probably brought by *settlers of Scotch-Irish descent.* In his 1983 book, *Masters of Old-Time Fiddling,* Krassen states Wright played with Reed at dances but also says he learned Reed’s tunes from his own son. Is there any place other than the Fiddler’s Fakebook that gives New England as a source?

No. It is not a New England tune. Virginia.

And yes West Virginia.

Interesting tune that shows more Scottish than English influence, perhaps, at once sounding different, with its descending contour and rhythmic phrasing akin to, say, Over the Waterfall https://thesession.org/tunes/5353 , an other "southern yankee" tune…

The sixth setting (X: 6) comes from the playing of Amy Geddes and is a rough transcription of the first pass through the tune on her CD "Messing". I haven’t added the grace notes or ringing strings for clarity but most of the time the open A or E string is ringing.
I like the way in the B part she switches to A minor. Taken at about 124 bpm (that’s minims or half notes - pretty fast).

I have recently heard another, Appalachian-sounding tune called "The Kitchen Girl" but it’s nothing like this one (which I already knew) Does anyone have the dots for this other tune? The person playing it didn’t. Thanks

This a version we play in Kentucky and Tennessee characterized by long note double-stops in the first measure of part A. The A part is played in A mix but shifts to A minor in the B part to "jang" the tune down.

Aye, Amy Geddes’s version, which can be heard on her album "Messing", is pretty rocking. I can well understand why DonaldK was inspired to have a go at transcribing a part of it and posting above.

It’s the last tune of the set including, (Charlie McKerron’s) Fionn’s, (Liz Carroll’s?) Sisters Reel & the Kitchen Girl, which can be heard in full here:

https://amygeddes.bandcamp.com/track/fionns

Whole album is well worth having.

The local version which we play here is very similar to the first version above which was posted by Nigel Gatherer.

Laurence