Moonshiner

DESCRIPTION: "I've been a moonshiner for sev'nteen long years, I've spent all my money for whiskey and beer, I'll go to some holler, I'll put up my still...." "I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry; If moonshine don't kill me I'll live till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstel song)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #56, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, with verses from many places, including probably "Moonshiner," "Rye Whiskey," and maybe even "Green Grows the Laurel"); also #57, "Short Life of Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune, opening with a "Moonshiner" verse but the rest is "Short Life of Trouble")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 142-143, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 187, p. 189, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 38, "God Bless the Moonshiners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 134, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 229, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 29, #3 (1983), p, 1, "God Bless that Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, from Currence Hammons)
ST San142 (Full)
Roud #4301
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Moonshiner" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Daw Henson, "Moonshiner" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Moonshiner" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: An early 1960s recording of this song by Bob Dylan, long circulated as a bootleg but released in the 1990s, became justly famous in the folk revival as one of his finest performances, and inspired multiple covers of his version. Listening to the Daw Henson field recording, it seems very likely that this was Dylan's source. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San142

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