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The Whiskey Seller/Little Brown Jug
Old-time and Bluegrass Waltz by Joseph Eastburn Winner, 1837-1918 (aka "Eastburn"); Widely known
ARTIST: From Brown Collection
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1880’s;
RECORDING INFO: Henry Whittier (OK 40063, 1924) NYC; Ernest Thompson (Co 147-D, 1924) NYC; Uncle George Reneau (Vo 14812, 1924) NYC; Dave Macon “Muskrat Medley” (Vo 15101, 1925) NYC; Chubby Parker Gnt Uniss 1927) Richmond, Ind.; Anderson, Bob; and the Country Ramblers. Indiana Hoedown, Puritan 5003, LP (1973), cut#B.05. Goforth, Gene. Emminence Breakdown, Rounder 0388, CD (1997), cut#28. Jarrell, Tommy. Pickin' on Tommy's Porch, County 778, LP (198?), cut# 8 . Lipscomb, Mance. Texas Songster, Live, Vol. 3, Arhoolie 1026, LP (1965), cut# 4 (Heel and Toe Polka). Macon, Uncle Dave. Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy, Old Homestead OHCS-148, LP (1983), cut#B.03c.Osborne, Uncle Charlie (Charlie N.). Relics and Treasures, June Appal JA 0049, LP (1985), cut# 8. Skillet Lickers. Corn Licker Still in Georgia, Voyager VRLP 303, LP (197?), cut#B.21. Thompson, Joe; and Tommy Thompson. Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia, Smithsonian SF 40079, CD (1998), cut#32;
OTHER NAMES: Bring Out the Little Brown Jug ; Robinson County ; Black River ; Wild John;
SOURCES: A Fiddler’s Companion; American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p.176. Read 'Em and Weep, Arco, Sof (1959/1926), p 52 . Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 33b. Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p415.
NOTES: The tune goes to a once-popular college song, but it appears to have originally been composed for the minstrel stage by one 'Eastburn', believed to be a pseudonym for Joseph E(astburn) Winner (1837-1918). He copyrighted the melody in 1869. J.E. Winner, as the name on the copyright goes, of Philadelphia, was the younger brother of the composer and publisher Septimus Winner.
Despite its stage origins, the tune quickly entered traditional repertoire and appears to have been widely disseminated. "Little Brown Jug" was cited as having commonly been played at Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and it was known at the same time at the other end of the country by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, who said, "many an amateur plays this simple old song" (Shumway).
The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell learned the tune from his father, because the lyric "tickled" him. African-American fiddler Cuje Bertram (Ky.) recorded the tune in 1970 on a home recording made for his family. Another African-American fiddler, North Carolinian Joe Thompson, played the tune in FCGD tuning. It was recorded on a 78 RPM by Kanawha County, West Virginia fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975).
33 Little Brown Jug- Brown Collection
Very generally known and sung. See BSM 261, and for its use as a play-party song consult Botkin's The American Play-Party Song by index under "Brown Jug." It is reported also from Virginia (FSV 147) and from Missouri (OFS iii 141-2, 331, the
latter as a play-party song). It appears twenty-two times in our collection, mostly in a stanza or two. All together these texts show eight distinguishable stanzas, four of them frequently and one of the four much more frequently than any of the others, four rarely. The four stanzas of frequent occurrence appear in the following text.
A. 'Little Brown Jug.' Contributed in 1914 by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Alleghany county.
1 My wife and I lived all alone
In a little log hut we called our own.
She loved gin and I loved rum.
Tell you what, we'd lots of fun !
2 When I go toiling to my farm
Little brown jug is under my arm.
I place it under a shady tree.
Little brown jug, 'tis you and me!
^ The manuscript adds Here in parenthesis "drinking mugs." Lomax also so explains the word. But the New International Dictionary says that "dornick" (variant spellings donnick, donnock) means a stone, a small boulder.
- So in the typescript. Miswritten for "take"?
3 My wife and 1 and a stump-tailed dog
Crossed the creek on a hickory log.
The log did hreak and we all fell in.
You het I hung to my jug of gin !
Ha ha ha, you and me,
Little brown jug, don't I love thee!
Ha ha ha, you and me.
Little brown jug, don't I love thee !
4 If I had a cow that gave such milk
I'd dress her in the finest silk.
I'd feed her on the finest hay
And milk her forty times a day !
The third of these stanzas appears in eighteen of our twenty-two texts, sometimes with slight variations and frequently with nothing else except the refrain. Stanzas that appear less frequently are found in the following texts.
'Little Brown Jug.' Collected by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, about 191 5. He notes that it "has been sung in this section for over forty years, according to reliable people. Very few sing it today, though several persons know the tune. Robert Smith recalled the above verses lately." The fourth stanza of this text, incomplete, runs:
Whiskey and brandy all played out
Little brown jug was up the spout.
'Little Brown Jug.' Reported by Clara Hearne of Pittsboro, Chatham
county. The third of her four stanzas runs :
As I went down the railroad track
I took my brown jug on my back.
I stubbed my toe and I went down.
And broke my brown jug on the ground.
D. 'Little Brown Jug.' Reported by Gertrude Allen (Mrs. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. Here the third stanza (incomplete) runs:
Went to milk and didn't know how,
Milked a goat instead of a cow.
E. 'Song.' Reported by Sarah K. Watkins as known in Anson and Stanly counties. Here the second stanza runs :
' This refrain stanza is so placed in the manuscript, probably by error.
It should come after each successive stanza.
Every night when I go to bed
Little brown jug goes under my head;
Every morning when I wake up
Little brown jug turns bottom-side up.
'Little Brown Jug.' As reported by Miss Doris Overton of Durham, this stanza takes a slightly different form :
Every night when I go to bed
Put the little brown jug under my head;
Every morning when I get up
Little brown jug is all dried up.
In Lois Johnson's version, from Davidson county, it ends more piquantly :
Next morning I gave a pull :
Jug was empty, and my wife was full !
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