What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?

Subject: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 07:50 AM

I've been meaning to ask and just never got around to it. It's obviously not a cat! I know you have a lot of, er, unusual things in the States, but a fish that lives in a banjo?!

I'm holding my breath ...

Steve ... going red ...

P.S. Must look inside my banjo when I get home ... gasp

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 08:11 AM

Steve - Quick, take a breath - by the look of the logo, a mudcat is a catfish, very common freshwater fish in the southern US and elsewhere, they can survive in areas with little or no water for short periods of time, hence you sometimes find them in mud rather than water. They have a mild chunky meat that's very popular - so much so that catfish aquaculture is big business in the south.

Being a Yankee (from northeast US) I won't attempt to explain how a catfish became the logo for a folk and blues group, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the southern roots of a lot of that music.

OK, now that you're breathing, I'd better get back to work...

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 09:06 AM

Steve....As Susan-Marie said the catfish is very popular here in the states, especially in the midwest and south. The Mississippi River is home to some big ones...and also closely related to the musical styles developed here as travellers migrated up and down the river, often referred to as the "Big Muddy." Memphis was a natural mid point where styles of several cultures mixed and is often considered the home of the blues, R&B, and Rock. The mud flats along that stretch of river are well known. Moer on Memphis? Click here

catspaw

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 09:23 AM

By the way, we had "walking catfish" in Africa that would use the spines next to their dorsal fins to crawl/slither from the rivers to our fish culture ponds and then back again. They were attracted to light, so there would be nights when we'd sit on the pond banks, waiting for the ponds to drain, singing to pass the time, and we'd look over at the lanterns and find we had an ichthyo-audience. Very wierd at first, but probably the closest I've ever come to singing for my supper.

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 09:34 AM

And were they supper?

RE: the banjo...There is a huge thread on this whole logo thing, but personally,I think a banjo was chosen because it is the only instrument that could fall in the river at St. Louis, get hung up for 3 and a half years on a sand bar, be dislodged by a runaway tow, wind up being fished out in Baton Rouge...and sound exactly the same as it did in St.Louis. Just a joke group..**smile** I play banjo too.

catspaw

P.S. RICK FIELDING---Create Thread, Groundhog about to go off, ain't holdin' this "trigger" much longer.

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 10:23 AM

Thanks, both! I should have paid more attention in geography class at school.

Rick, I won't ask what a groundog is - I'll rent the video sometime. I thought you might get into trouble with the ASPCA, but on second thoughts the groundhog must be happy, otherwise you wouldn't be able to keep your finger on the trigger! *smirk*

Steve

P.S. I once heard of an american vistor to Britain enquiring whether a hedgehog was a "critter" or a "varmint".

P.P.S. (It's definitely a critter!)

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Allan C.
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 11:06 AM

I don't know what the books say, but I always figured that a "varmint" was simply a "critter" that wasn't worth trying to eat and was, therefore, usless.

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 12:48 PM

I think that Max, the Knower of All Things Knowable, once said that a mudcat is an actual fish, a very small variety of catfish. I was passing through a town in southern Ontario last summer and was surprised to find that the high school team there was the Mudcats. I was tempted to take a picture of their mascot, but then thought better of it. I may live to regret that. A Web search disclosed that several teams have mudcat mascots. I found no evidence of the actual living fish spoken of by Max, the Knower of All Things Knowable, but I feel bound to take Max on his word.
I think also that Max, the Knower of All Things Knowable, once said that the Mudcat Cafe was founded as a blues site, and a catfish mascot would certainly be appropriate for blues, dontchathink?
However, the one thing I did not learn from Max, the Knower of All Things Knowable, is whether the Mudcat Cafe actually existed before that blessed day when a website called the Mudcat Cafe was opened as a host for the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database. I missed out on the first couple of months of the Mudcat Cafe because I was one of those wandering in oblivion after Xerox closed down the Digital Tradition website it sponsored (Dick and Susan, ever generous and genteel, would remind us that we should be grateful to Xerox for once sponsoring the DT, which is quite true).
Dick and Susan and Max, the Knower of All Things Knowable, could you fill us in on the missing pieces of early Mudcat History, in those ancient days before we found the 'Cat? Actually, since we've been around for over two years, and the Digital Tradition for over ten, which is close to eternity in Webtime, maybe we need a Mudcat Myth, a suitably mysterious chronicle of the genesis of this phenomenon. Better yet, perhaps a "Ballad of the 'Cat" would be more appropriate for this site. It should have at least eleventy-seven verses, I would think.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 01:35 PM

Joe, User of All Epithets Usable, did you do a find-and-replace offline to get all those epithets in?

To me "varmint" (= vermin) suggests a harmful animal that should be killed at any opportunity. Most of us don't believe in that idea any more (except for roaches and rats).

A groundhog is a marmot that doesn't live in the mountains. Common in eastern North America. Pudgy, furry, not well adapted to a world that includes cars.

This has been your irregularly scheduled natural-history break.

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 02:03 PM

this is a mudcat

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Denny
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 02:04 PM

Catfish mmmmmmmmmm been a long time but I remember catching them in a lake when I was a wee tyke and taking em to aunties and putting em in the pan with flour and butter.....mmmmmm great!

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 02:07 PM

and here's what he looks like

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 06:48 PM

So-o-o-o-o, a question and some poorly structured memories. Why would the catfish or mudcat be associated with the blues. Certainly they are a delta delicacy. The catfish has a "skin" not scales. This makes the catfish a little tricky to prepare. If I recall, you also have to avoid the "spines" as you try to skin it (as opposed to scaling it).

I believe also the catfish is a "bottom feeder" which means in some ways it is a "trash fish" in that it will eat anything.

The difficulty in preparation and the reputation as a "garbage head" may have made the catfish less popular with the rich folks. But it is good eatin' if you don't think about where it has been and what it has eaten (see the groundhog day thread for other food examples). Therefore, it became associated with the lower classes (just like chitlin's and other delicacies). And therefore, it is associated with the blues.

All of this post may have no basis in fact, but it is fodder for further discussion (say it fast three times).

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Feb 99 - 03:42 AM

You can eat hedgehogs, too; it's said to be very pleasant and not unlike chicken. However, the man that eats hedgehogs is up (down?) there with the man who shot Bambi's mother, so I can't honestly reccommend it!

Actually, if you're interested, you cover the spines with mud or clay and stick the whole thing in your camp fire; this saves you having to try and kill it when it's all rolled up. When it's cooked, you peel off the clay and the spines come off with it; you then ... er ... get stickty fingers, I suppose.

Steve

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 99 - 03:52 AM

Just like chicken, eh, Steve? I've heard that one before.
A few years back, somebody killed a big rattlesnake at Cub Scout camp, and then held it up on a stick and carried it around for all to see. The next day, they cooked it up and passed around, saying it was "just like chicken." Well, I tried it - it was white and tasted like meat, more or less.
I think I'll stick to hamburger....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 08 Feb 99 - 06:05 AM

You know, if it tastes "just like chicken", I'll stick to chicken.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 99 - 11:48 AM

Why the hell is it that everything has to taste just like chicken? I mean, I know it's hard to get any takers if you describe something as tasting like the inside of a 50 year old sewer pipe. Personally, I've never found that most of the things taste like chicken at all! Anymore, a lot of the chicken we buy doesn't taste like chicken either!!! What ever happened to just plain chicken. It's reaching the point where you have two choices: 1.)Chicken puffed up the size of a small emu from feeding on steroid enhanced, chemically balanced, vitamin fortified, styrofoam bits, OR 2.)Free Range chicken, which I am forced to assume is a synonym for ROAD KILL.

All untried meats do not taste like chicken! It finally came to me in the groundhog thread after kidding Brother Fielding, groundhog tastes more like Engleman Spruce and phos/bron strings stirred together and sauteed in rancid lard. Personally...I'm sorta' with Roger....If it tastes like chicken, I'd just as soon have the chicken...if I could find one!!!

catspaw

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 08 Feb 99 - 12:08 PM

Little kid was dragging a chicken hawk down the road & a fellow came up and asked him what he was going to do with it.

"Eat it"

"What does it taste like?"

"'bout like owl"

Bob S.

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 12:01 AM

Squirrel & rabbit don't taste alot like chicken either, kinda stringy & not at all that tasty, at least the first couple weren't. And abalone didn't taste like steak either but that was pretty tasty.

"There's a rabbit on a log, I ain't got my rabbit dog,
Hate to see that rabbit get away.
Get away, get away, I hate to see that rabbit get away"
By a real hungry person. I'm gonna have some pie. Barry

Subject: RE: What the heck is a mudcat, anyway?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 03:20 AM

Well frogs' legs really do taste like chicken! Admittedly, a little six-inch high chicken, but still a chicken!

Steve