The Moonshiner
The text borrows phrases from several well-known English songs, yet it follows the American tradition of glorifying moonshiners as folk heroes during Prohibition.
He found the song in the collection of another folklorist named Gilbert Combs, a Methodist Episcopal minister in Lexington, Kentucky.
[9] In The Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax arranges the tune in D minor and retains the triple time of the Irish melody, even though most of his field recordings are in a quadruple meter.
[8] Lomax cites the work of Frank Brown, whose discussions of these tunes stresses that folk lyrics are often composites of several different songs.
[10][11] On September 11, 1937 in Botto, Kentucky, Alan and Elizabeth Lomax recorded Dawson Henson performing "The Moonshiner" on guitar.
Greil Marcus enthused that the vocal performance is "among the best Bob has ever recorded", and he lamented, "It would have been good to have had this song around a few years ago when people complained that Dylan couldn’t sing.
"[18] The song has also been performed and recorded by Elliott Smith, Cat Power, Rumbleseat, Cast Iron Filter, Jalan Crossland, Peter Rowan, Railroad Earth, Bob Forrest, Roscoe Holcomb, Uncle Tupelo, Jeffrey Foucault, The Tallest Man On Earth, Tim Hardin, Charlie Parr, Punch Brothers, Redbird, Robert Francis, Scorpios, Dave Van Ronk, əkoostik hookah, Moriarty, Clay Parker & Jodi James, Lost Dog Street Band, David Bromberg, and Parsonsfield.
In the movie Deliverance, actor/musician Ronny Cox plays and sings the "religion when I die" stanza on his acoustic guitar around the first night's campfire.
[citation needed] American I've been a moonshiner for sev'nteen long years I've spent all my money for whiskey and beers.
[9] Irish I've been a moonshiner for many a year And I've spent all me money on whiskey and beer I'll go to some hollow and I'll set up my still And I'll make you a gallon for a ten shilling bill
