Moonshiner's Blues

I am a singer hear my story
18 years is my age
Locked in a federal prison
Like a bird in a cage

Rich man buys the lawyer
Poor boy gotta do the time
What was my transgression
What was my deadful crime?

Did I take my gun did I shoot my brother
Rob, steal, did I kill my wife
What debt do I owe
To pay with 5 years of my life?

CHORUS:
My father was an old moonshiner
Like his father and his before
We make good whiskey in a dry county
We make it from the corn we grow

I was born in south Kentucky
Where the sun don't ever shine
Poor boy better not break the law
Better not make that sweet moonshine

I was my father's helper
Drove the car to the county line
I'm 18 that makes me guilty
Federal crime to sell moonshine

Been caught before they caught us again
They threw the book to right the wrong
Didn't pay the taxes on our whiskey
I'm in jail and I sing my song

CHORUS

We need law and we need order
Can't have criminals everywhere
5 years for making whiskey
Tell me do you think that's fair

It ain't cocaine it's just corn liquor
We just make what the people buy
The government says you sell moonshine
Gonna take 5 years of a poor boy's life

CHORUS

©2001 by Harvey Reid

see Harvey play this

recorded on #115 "The Great Sad River"

As re-recorded on #120 "The Song Train"