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*My Album: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hoopiejohn
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It's been a while since I posted anything because I sliced open the index finger on my left hand while sawing up some oak, and the doctor at Mountain Home VA Hospital advised me not to play the guitar for a couple of weeks until after I get the stitches out. So instead, I tried to think of an easy piece that does not require use of that most important finger.
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We used to sing this song as kids on the bus to vacation bible school. It is so much more interesting than that hackneyed old "99 bottles of beer on the wall...". I will perform here only eight (prime-numbered) of the twenty verses I've posted. (And aren't you glad?)

Keeping in the spirit of performance for this piece, I've been drinking heavily.

Played finger/bottleneck style on my 6-string Republic brass-bodied "Resolian" resonator parlor guitar. Open tuned to "Vestapol" (D-A-D-F#-A-D) tuning. I use this guitar intstead of my National when I play slide to avoid nicking up the frets on my more expensive guitars.

Note: I wear the ski mask because I'm otherwise famous, and don't want this to "get out".

The twenty verses of "Rye Whiskey" I know (but there's probably even more):

1) I'm a poor dogface soldier,
And far from my home,
If I live through this battle,
I'll never more roam.

2) *You've never touched liquor,
But for all that good sense,
It won't make no difference,
A hundred years hence.

3) *I like rye whiskey,
And corn whiskey too;
If I ain't got neither,
Then vodka will do.

4) I'll buy my own whiskey,
And make my own stew,
If I get drunk, madam,
That's nothing to you.

5) *If the ocean was whiskey,
And I was a duck;
I'd dive to the bottom,
And never come up.

6) Yes I drink whiskey,
My money's my own,
And them that don't like me
Can leave me alone.

7) *Rye whiskey, rye whiskey,
Rye whiskey I cry;
If I can't have rye whiskey,
I surely will die.

8) Sweet Molly, Sweet Molly,
I love you so true,
But your parents forbade me,
To ever see you.

9) Your parents don't like me,
Because I'm too poor;
They say I'm unworthy
To enter your door.

10) I'll go up the holler,
And build me a still,
I'll sell you one gallon
for a two dollar bill.

11) *Up on Clinch Mountain,
Where I make my home,
I'm drunk and I'm dangerous,
So leave me alone.

12) Rye whiskey, rye whiskey,
You're no friend to me;
You killed my poor daddy,
And next you'll kill me.

13) *Oh whiskey, you villain,
You've been my downfall;
You've kicked me and cuffed me,
But I loved you through all.

14) Rye whiskey, rye whiskey,
Rye whiskey I crave;
I'll drink rye whiskey,
'Til I lay in my grave.

15) I've drunk some whiskey,
And I've drunk some wine;
Some ten thousand bottles,
I've killed in my time.

16) I like my soup beans,
Of cornbread I'm fond;
But my favorite foods,
Are all bottled in bond.

17) *I've no wife to quarrel,
No children to squall -
The best kind of living,
No worries at all.

18) I'll eat when I'm hungry,
I'll drink when I'm dry;
If some woman don't kill me,
I'll live til I die.

19) *For work I'm too lazy,
And begging's too slow;
Bank robbing's too dangerous,
To gambling I'll go.

20) Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds,
I've known you of old;
You robbed my poor pockets
Of silver and gold.

Verses attributed to flatpicker47:

XXI) My girl she left me,
so I've been told
She couldn't stand my drinking
or gambling my gold.

XXII) She left in the morning,
She left with a fuss,
She left me and she's gone,
But I don't miss her that much.

XXIII) Now it's cornbread when I'm hungry
Whiskey when I'm dry
Young ladies when I'm lonely
And probably hell when I die!

Appalachian folk music

jean and edna ritchie sing four marys

Roscoe Holcomb - I am a man of constant sorrow

I Am A Rebel Soldier

WEEPING WILLOW TREE CLINCH MOUNTAIN SWEETHEARTS

Down In the Valley (Birmingham Jail)

The Devil's Dream

Elk River Blues ~ Old Time West Virginia Fiddle Tune

Horseshoe ~ Old Time West Virginia Fiddle Tune

Tarbolton/Cooley's Reels

seamus ennis plays a reel

Congress Reel - Mountain Road - Virginia Reel

Crockett Family Mountaineers Medley of Old Time Dance Tunes

Barbara Allen

Songcatcher - Emmy Rossum singing Barbara Allen

Sample Clip from "West Virginia Mountain Music" with Dwight Diller

Appalachian Dulcimer: Burnette's Lament

Shady Grove (re trad.) on dulcimer

Vol #1: Old Time music and dance scene around southwestern Virginia

Cumberland Gap

song catcher oh death

Iris DeMent singing Pretty Saro from Songcatcher

Jean Ritchie sings the Cuckoo

Sen. Robert Byrd-Playing & Singing

Pretty Little Shoes - Lester McCumbers

Laurel Lonesome

Ralph Stanley Village Church Yard

Kitchen Girl - old time clawhammer banjo

Senator Robert Byrd: Rye Whiskey (1978 Recording)

Senator Robert Byrd: Red Bird (1978 Recording)

Dellie Norton - "Young Emily"

Dillard Chandler - "The Carolina Lady"

Dillard Chandler - "The Soldier Traveling from the North"

Mainers Mountaineers-Watermelon On The Vine

Parker & Dodd-Sail Away Lady

"Rye Whiskey" (Traditional)

PETE SEEGER ~ Barbara Allen ~

AIN'T NO GRAVE (Can Hold My Body Down) Johnny Cash

Sara Evans - Mary of the Wild Moor

Mary of the Wild Moor

Re: Moonshiner

She moved through the fair

Children, Go Where I Send Thee -- Ralph Stanley (and CMB)

Possum Holler Boys- I'm a Bluegrass Man

Trouble In Appalachia

Paul Robeson, "Joe Hill"

Old Regular Baptists - "I am a Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow"

Hobart Smith - "Cripple Creek"

Kilby Snow - "May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister?"

Ernest Stoneman - "Bile 'em Cabbage Down"

Roscoe Holcomb - "Black Eyed Suzy"

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