“Smokey Mountain Bill”

Description

"Smokey Mountain Bill... drunk a lot of gin -- That's what caused him all the trouble he got in." Bill, a moonshiner, shoots a revenuer. Imprisoned by the sheriff, he escapes to the mountains, where he and his still live a happy life

Supplemental text

Smokey Mountain Bill
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Edith Fulton Fowke, editor, and Richard Johnston, music editor,
Folk Songs of Canada (first edition), pp. 102-104. Apparently from
Vera Mackenzie.

Listen for a spell to a story I will tell,
A tale about a man named Smoky Mountain Bill.
He was tall and thin and drunk a lot of gin --
That's what caused him all the trouble he got in.
He had a whiskey still away up on a hill,
And he would kill a quart just to drive away a chill;
It took about a keg to get him on a jag,
And then he'd start a-singing this song:
  "Yoo-de-lay-dee, yoo-de-lay-dee-hoo."

(3 additional stanzas)

Recordings

• Frank Luther & Carson Robison, "Smoky Mountain Bill" (Brunswick 412, 1930)

References

1. Fowke/Johnston, pp. 102-104, "Smokey Mountain Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. ST FJ102 (Partial)
3. Roud #4544
4. BI, FJ102