the story of the song "Rye Whiskey" and my great-grandfather

[FrankHudson]

Hearing flatbaroque's fine performance of the traditional tune "Rye Whiskey" here reminded me of a story I told about how my relationship to the song broadened after I was told that my great-grandfather was fond of that song.

While researching the history of a often-revived spoken word piece "The Deck of Cards" that had made was we used to call the "hit parade" several times, I found out more about "Rye Whiskey."

Here's my best try at telling the story in a live performance with musical backing a couple of years ago. Warning, it is a story, and has to ramble a bit to make a broader point that the usual 3 minute song would.

Frank Eli Hudson and Rye Whiskey

[flatbaroque]

Hi Frank,
I enjoyed that.I had come across a little bit of history when I researched lyrics on the song.
But your "stream of consciousness" spoken word was nicely entertaining.Informative and gave me a few smiles too.
Cheers

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by flatbaroque

Hi Frank,
I enjoyed that.I had come across a little bit of history when I researched lyrics on the song.
But your "stream of consciousness" spoken word was nicely entertaining.Informative and gave me a few smiles too.
Cheers

Thanks for listening. I heard many of that song's verses first from the singing of Dave Van Ronk, and so I, like he, and like you tend to sing the song as a serious lament. To come across the other approach was a big "Aha!" moment for me.

What did you learn about the song when you looked into "Rye Whiskey?" Lots of "floating verses" in it, so I'm guessing the earliest might be fairly old.