Bootlegger's Boy

Album: Carry Me Back (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Old Crow Medicine Show has gone to great lengths to do field-work and research to augment the authenticity of their songs. In addition to working the fields, growing and harvesting tobacco, they've also practiced the age-old Virginia tradition of moonshining.

    "Moonshine is something else the band did," Ketch Secor said in Paste. "We stayed pretty busy between grading tobacco, brewing corn beer and distilling whiskey. It's like we got this crash course of living like the Carter Family for two or three years. There's a feeling about having a milk carton of white lightning; it makes you feel like a motherf--ker, makes you drive a little faster, makes the tunes drive a little faster. But it can also kill you; you can't do it for long before your lucky star falls. Since Gene Harmon, one of those guys who lived with us on the Beech Mountain, died, I didn't drink corn whiskey anymore."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.

Artis the Spoonman

Artis the SpoonmanSong Writing

Even before Soundgarden wrote a song about him, Artis was the most famous spoon player of all time. So why has he always been broke?

Elton John

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright IIISongwriter Interviews

"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. JonesSongwriter Interviews

The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."