Moonshine Can, The

DESCRIPTION: Informers report Pat's whiskey still to the Mounties. He is called to court. His still is dumped in the bay. At a neighbor's house a health is drunk to all but the informers
AUTHOR: Pat Troy (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: drink police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 75-76, "The Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 39, "Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9949
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Moonshine Can" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
George Hatfield, "Moonshine Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Frank Knox, "Moonshine Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kenneth Pink, "The Moonshine Can" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blockader's Trail" (subject)
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject)
NOTES [241 words]: According to Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in West, p. 55, "This was composed by Pat Troy of Goose Cove in 1920 about real events he had undergone that year. Folklorist Julia Bishop has shown that The Moonshine Can was composed specifically to clear Troy's reputation." It appears to have gone into tradition based on radio performances by Blondahl and others -- note that, in Peacock's version, "Pat Troy" has become "Pat Roy."
"Doctor Grenfell," mentioned in Peacock's version, was Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (1865-1940), was the son of an English clergyman who became a doctor in 1886, but then was influenced by the famous American evangelist D. L. Moody and by a zealous doctor he worked with, Frederick Treves. Grenfell decided to devote his life to improving conditions in Labrador, and took a hospital ship there in 1892. Over the next several years, he treated patients in Labrador and lectured in Canada and elsewhere to support his mission; eventually his mission founded five hospitals, seven nursing stations, and three orphanages. He also tried to promote economic development in Labrador. Plus he encouraged activities such as Greenleaf and Mansfield's song collecting. He wrote a number of books, and was honored with many degrees and decorations, most notably Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. There are at least five biographies of Grenfell (CanadianBio, p. 317; DictNewfLabrador, pp. 133-134). - RBW
Bibliography

CanadianBio: W. Stewart Wallace, Editor, The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, fourth edition revised and enlarged by W. A. McKay, Macmillan of Canada, 1978
DictNewfLabrador: (Robert H. Cuff, managing editor), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990
West: Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea075

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