Old Grey Cat: A Song History
"Old Grey Cat," which the Traditional Tune Archive also lists as "Smuggler's Reel," is a reel that most of the editions the archive lists set in E Dorian, though one collection gives it in E minor; contra dancers in North America took it up from Scottish sources and have made it a favorite.[1] Its origin is less settled. Charles Gore ties the title’s cat to the Irish Sean Liath, yet the earliest printings he found are Scottish, going back only to the 1880s, and those label it an Irish tune.[1] Kerr's Merry Melodies, from about the 1880s, includes it in its first volume.[1]
Cat and Kittens, chromolithograph after Henriette Ronner, published by William Schaus, 1867. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.
The earliest known sound recording dates from January 1910, when the Scottish melodeon player Frederick James Cameron (1883–1949) of Elgin, billed as "W.F. Cameron," recorded it in a set with "Flowers of Edinburgh."[1] On the American side, it appears in the first volume of Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994), from the playing of Ruthie Dornfeld of Seattle.[1] Stephen Seifert arranged it for mountain dulcimer in his old-time jam collection Join the Jam II.[2]
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