Way down in the woods of Alabama lived an old man with a still
Through the night in the pale moonlight, his moonshine was the talk of the hills
Many a man has met his end with a bottle in his hand
But when a girl learns the liquor's ways, then a shadow falls across the land.
Chorus 1:
Drink a little swallow my little darling
Drink a little swallow my dear.
I'll trade a pint for your love tonight, just tell no-one that you were here.
"Oh moonshiner," she said amoured, "in love let's drink a dram."
"Oh Pamela, give me your love, and I will give thee my hand."
Love it burned like liquor's fire, but Pamela is not here.
Sitting alone by an icy fire, for the child she carries gives her no cheer
Chorus 1
"Oh moonshiner, your promise dear, forget not what you said."
"Oh Pamela, my bottle tastes much better than your love ever did."
In anguished tears to her father she ran and they heard the raven's caw
Her father ran to the sheriff telling of this liquor made against the law.
Chorus 2:
Drink a little swallow my little darling
Drink a little swallow my dear.
Ain't such a drink in the Tennessee hills, as far as I can hear.
The moonshiner in lateness saw the harm his love had done
Circled outside his cabin home was the sheriff and her father with guns
"Oh moonshiner, remember this, for my father will not stand
For you to offer your firey drink to a helpless maiden's hand."
Chorus 1
"Oh Pamela, how could you tell, when you drank of your own free will?
You shall never be my bride, and you must die if I shall go to jail."
This her father could not accept and he shot the young man down
His dying words to young Pamela cursed the liquor that made him drown.
Chorus 1
Chorus 2
credits
from Achy Brachy Songs,
released November 4, 2012
John Lyon, banjo, vocals
Birgit Burke, backing vocals
Miriam Burke, whistle
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