The Revenuers

from Elk River Blues by Sweet Joe Pye

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about

Learned from Gerry Milnes in Elkins, West Virginia who learned it from Trace Ratcliff, a neighbor who lived two miles away and made moonshine.

The song mentions the National Prohibition Act, enacted in 1919 and informally known as the Volstead Act. It enforced the 18th amendment on the prohibition of the distillation of alcohol. Revenuers were the government officials who enforced these laws.

lyrics

Well, come all you booze fighters, if you want to hear
About the kind of booze that we sell around here.
It’s made out of buckwheat, rye, and corn,
And all bottled up in some old barn.

Well, we don’t give a damn for the Volstead law,
And for prohibition, we don’t care at all.
It’s made way back in the swamps and the hills,
Where there’s plenty of moonshine stills.

And the lamb will lay down with the lion,
After drinking this old moonshine.

Well, one drop will make a rabbit whip a bulldog
One drop will make a cat chase a wild hog.
Make a bullfrog spit in black snake’s face,
And make a hard-shelled creature fall from grace.

And the lamb will lay down with the lion,
After drinking this old moonshine.

Well, you tip up your hat, and you take a little drink,
And then for a week, you won’t be able to think.
And the next thing you know, you’ll be getting kind of tight
Out on the street, trying to raise a fight.

So you tip up your head and you take a little more,
And then for a month you’ll be feeling kind of sore.
And then you’ll swear you won’t drink it anymore,
But you’ve said that a thousand times before.

And the lamb will lay down with the lion
After drinking this old moonshine

credits

from Elk River Blues, track released May 23, 2019
Recorded and mixed by Doris Veldman
Voice: Annick Odom, Clara San José Casajús & Anna Jane Lester

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Sweet Joe Pye Morgantown, West Virginia

Sweet Joe Pye is
an old-time string band originally formed in The Netherlands (with members Anna Jane, Clara, and Annick). Current members are now split between Paris, and Morgantown, WV (Annick, Henri Colombat, and Lucas Henri). Sweet Joe Pye shares a mix of original songs with ballads and fiddle tunes hailing from the Appalachian region. ... more

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