Bug In The Taters: A Song History

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Bug in the 'Tater, also written Bug in the Taters, is an American reel in D major built from four strains.[1] Its first strain is close to that of Ragtime Annie, and a version from fiddler Bert Edwards, who was born in Sparta, North Carolina, and is associated with Bluefield, West Virginia, goes by the title Sister Ann.[1][2]

Painting of a woman in a white cap and dark clothes, seated in profile peeling a potato with a knife

Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Peeler, oil on canvas, 1885. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters recorded it in New York on May 16, 1927, with two fiddles, banjo, guitar and ukulele, and it was issued on Brunswick 182.[3] Hopkins supplied the dance calls, and the label credits the fiddling to Charlie Bowman alone, though Tony Alderman also played fiddle at the session.[1] The Buckle Busters was one of several names used by the Hill Billies, a string band formed in Galax, Virginia, in 1924, which Bowman joined as a second fiddler the next year.[4]

The folklorist Vance Randolph recorded the tune from Ozarks fiddlers for the Library of Congress in the early 1940s.[1] A performance by Delbert McGrath appears on Rounder's Ozark Folksongs, a compilation drawn from Randolph's 1941 field recordings in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.[5] Among revival bands, the Double Decker String Band recorded it on their 1980 album Giddyap Napoleon.[1]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Bug in the 'Tater".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Sister Ann".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Brunswick matrix E23183-E23184. Bug in the 'taters / Buckle Busters ; Al Hopkins".
  4. UNC Libraries exhibit: "The Hill Billies".
  5. Musical Traditions (Vic Smith): review of "Ozark Folksongs" (Rounder CD1108).