Quotes / Hillbilly Moonshiner

I've been a moonshiner for many's the year,
I've spent all me money on whiskey and beer,
I'll go to some hollow and set up me still,
And I'll make you a gallon for a ten-shilling bill.

— "The Moonshiner", traditional Irish/American

It's oot the barn, and o'er the hill,
Through the dark, and there's the still,
A cup in your hand and drink your fill,
And the moon was shining clear.

— Alan Reid, addition to A Mile and a Bittock by Robert Louis Stevenson

At the foot of the hill there's a neat little still, where the smoke curls up to the sky,
By the smoke and the smell you can plainly tell that there's poteen brewing nearby.
It fills the air with odour rare and betwixt both me and you,
When home you stroll you can take a bowl or a bucket of the mountain dew.

— "Real Ould Mountain Dew", traditional Irish/American

Once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top
Lookin' for a moonshine still.
Strangers ain't come down from Rocky Top,
Reckon they never will.

Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top,
Dirt's too rocky by far.
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top
Get their corn from a jar.

"Rocky Top", Felice and Bordleaux Bryant

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore,
Same as my daddy and his daddy before.
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here.
He only came to town about twice a year.
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line.
Everybody knew that he made moonshine.
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad.
He headed up the holler with everything he had.
It's before my time but I've been told,
He never came back from Copperhead Road.

— "Copperhead Road", Steve Earle

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