Good Old Mountain Dew

DESCRIPTION: "Beside a hill there is a still Where the smoke runs up to the sky." The smell reveals that "the liquor boys are nigh." The making of the dew is described, and it is said to have been praised by scholars. The singer calls for more dew.
AUTHOR: Probably Edward Harrigan, but see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Edward Harrigan's drama "Lorgaire")
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 41, "The Hidden Still" (1 fragment, probably this piece)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore541, "The Hidden STill" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 64, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 23, pp. 53-54,112,166, "The Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 180-182, "Good Old Mountain Dew' (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 288-289, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Old Mountain Dew")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 229, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text)
DT, MTDEW2*
ADDITIONAL: _Harrigan and Hart's Little Green Leaf in our Bible Songster_, (New York:) Dick & Sullivan, 1879 (available in the Library of Congress Robert Winslow Gordon songster collection), p, 22, "The Mountain Dew" (1 text)
Roud #938
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Abbott1)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on IRClancyMakem01)
John Griffin and Ed Geoghegan?, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Are You There Moriarity" (tune, per OLochlainn)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Let the Grasses Grow
NOTES [162 words]: Not to be confused with Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Old Mountain Dew." - RBW
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "I am told it was written by Phil O Neill of Kinsale." - BS
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 37, on the other hand, attributes it to Samuel Lover. But I should observe that few of his song notes seem to find support in reputable sources. And, of course, it's possible that Lover published a version without actually writing it.
The likeliest author, though, is surely Edward Harrigan, of Harrigan and Hart fame (for whom see "The Babies on Our Block." His version -- which has additional lyrics not found in, for instance, the O Lochlainn version -- was copyrighted in 1879. The songster version says Harrigan wrote it in San Francisco in 1860. This is probably an error, though, since Harrigan does seem to have performed in San Francisco until 1867.
Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing me to the songster version. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: LxA180

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