Little Brown Jug, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises drink and the little brown jug it comes in: "Ha, ha, ha, you and me, 'Little brown jug' don't I love thee." Drink has turned his friends into enemies, left him poor and sick, and ruined his prospects -- but still he wants another drop
AUTHOR: Eastburn (Joseph Eastburn Winner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (sheet music published by J. E. Winner of Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 115-118, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 28, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 212, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 406)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 261, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt from another)
Randolph 408, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment which may or may not go here)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus 6 excerpts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 99, pp. 124-125, "The Little Brown Jug" (3 short texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #131, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #78, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 83-84, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune that are clearly "Little Brown Jug"; also some supplementary dance verses that appear to derive from "Cotton-Eyed Joe" or "Corn-Stalk Fiddle" or some other very unstable text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 176-177, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite, since it includes all the original verses plus some floaters)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 212, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 65, "(Little Brown Jug)" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 40-41, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 52-53, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 64-65, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 269, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 79-81, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 161-163, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 236, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 334-335, "Little Brown Jug"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 97, "Little Brown Jug" (notes only)
DT, BROWNJUG*
ST RJ19115 (Full)
Roud #725
RECORDINGS:
[Gene] Austin & [George] Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (CYL: Edison [BA] 4973, prob. 1924)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "Little Brown Jug" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 45132, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Brown Jug" (Perfect 12421, 1928)
The Glenn Miller Band (Bluebird 10286, 1939)
Chubby Parker, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5013/Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928) (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 147-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6025/Champion 15198, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, Music B-257, "The Little Brown Jug" ("My wife and I lived all alone"), J.E. Winner (Philadelphia), 1869 (with tune) "by Eastburn"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "The Whiskey Seller" (tune)
cf. "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old Man's Lament (II) (File: Logs050)
Little Brown Jug (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 109)
NOTES [75 words]: Joseph Winner (the brother of Septimus Winner, a.k.a. "Alice Hawthorne") published some twenty pieces in his career under the title Eastburn, but only this one had any commercial success. The title may have come from another song of the same name, but that piece (by George Cooper and W. F. Wellman, Jr.; copyright 1868) fell into instant obscurity. Those who wish to see it can find it, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #21, p. 41, "The Little Brown Jug." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19115

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography