Rye Whiskey (song) (And drink)
Today's post is about the song, Rye Whiskey, featured in RDR2 as "O Mollie" is a song of uncertain origins, thought to originate to the early 1800s. It was first recorded by Fiddlin John Carson in 1926. However, I can't find the original recording. The next famous cover and the one best known as being the "first" was by Tex Ritter (1905-1974) in 1933 for Columbia Records.
Tex Ritter will continue to be featured in this series, as he was another "singing cowboy". Born January 12, 1905 in Murvaul, Texas.
Like Stan Jones (Ghost Riders in the Sky) Tex was an educated man. After studying pre-law at the University of Texas at Austin, he traveled to Chicago with a musical troupe and entered Northwestern Law School. (Source) However he soon grew attracted to show business, and started singing a thirty minute program of mostly cowboy songs on the radio. In 1928, he moved to New York and was in several Brodway before moving to LA in 1936, where he went on to perform in over 70 movies as an actor and 76 on movie soundtracks. He died in 1974 at the age of 67, to what was attributed as a heart attack. However, his son died at 54 from an aortic dissection, and it is thought this may have been what actually caused Tex Ritter's death.
But back to Rye Whiskey. It's thought to be an old drinking song, and has various origins and variations.
The older "The Wagoners Lad" about a rich woman of means, may be the source song, although that's hard to verify. The original lyrics are about the lack of agency of a woman who has fallen in love with a man but has to let him leave to keep her parents happy.
"oh hard is the fortune of all womankind
They're always controlled, they're always confined
Controlled by their parents until they are wise
Then slaves to their husbands the rest of their lives"
You can also find a version by the Duhks here.
Popular among both Cowboys and Appalachia, it's also known as "Way up on Clinch Mountain", which is thought to be pulled from a 17th century Scottish Scottish ballad. It was first documented in the 1890s and collected as part of the Lomax's efforts to retain old country songs. It was recorded by Jilson Setters, or "Blind Bill Day" and "The Singin' Fiddler of Lost Hope Hollow in 1928.
In some versions of Rye Whiskey especially Pete Seeger's, there's a reference to Clinch Mountain.
"Way up on Clinch mountain
Quick segue into Clinch Mountain! It's an interesting place, tucked between the Tennessee and Virginian borders in the Appalachian mountains. It's a lonely and hardscrabble place, and has produced quite a few musicians. You may know of Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys. The mountain was featured predominately by the Carter Family (Of the same June Carter that married Johnny Cash) in the 1928 "My Clinch Mountain Home". I've gotten to run a race through the area, and the mountain is impressive. When hiking in the east versus the west, there's a sense of just absolute timelessness. Whereas the desert feels very raw and elemental, The Appalachians just feel old. Once taller than the Rockies, they were worn down to plains until a second upheaval. So they are so old they've been worn down to their current height not once, but twice now. The New River, which cuts through them, is one of the five oldest rivers in the world. Although first settled by Germans, it is the Scottish and the subsequent Scottish Reel, developed in Highlands in the mid 18th century, that became so integral to the fiddling style that Appalachia has become famous for. You can hear a lot of this inspiration in later western ballads and standards.
But back to Rye Whiskey and it's various iterations. I point you to Fresno's State's short listing on all the variations and inspiration of the song, including a possible loose tie to "On Top of Old Smokey" although that is thought to be an editing error by the Lomaxes.
The tune became a Texas gambling song known by Jack of Diamonds, popularized by Blind Lemon Jefferson. The lyrics shifted, being sung from the point of view of a railroad gambler who lost his money playing conquian, an ancestor to gin rummy. (Urgo, Joseph R.; Abadie, Ann J. (2007). Faulkner's inheritance. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 64.)
From the aforementioned book, "...Jack o' Diamonds" was a song, according to black Mississippian Lews Jones, that railroad men used to sing when they'd go broke playing card games like "Coon can." 'Everything going wrong with him," Jones remembered, speaking of a busted gambler, "and he'll go to singing and hollering. Take that ace, deuce, and queen/It gonna turn my money green/Jack o' diamonds a hard card to play."
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929) was born in the ghost town Coutchman, in eastern Texas. He died at only 36 in Chicago Illinois of unclear reasons, but in his short life he was integral to early blues and specifically, known as the founder of Texas blues. He was buried in an unmarked grave Wortham, Freestone County, Texas. In 1967, a marker was erected in the general area of his plot, but in 1997 he was given a stone with the inscription taken from his song, "See that My Grave is Kept Clean" Lord, it's one kind favor I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean. His impact on music cannot be understated. Bob Dylan covered the above song, and the Beatles covered another one of his songs, Matchbox Blues. B.B. King has stated that Jefferson was one of his biggest musical influences. (Source) So you may know Blind Lemon Jefferson, even though that didn't know you knew it.
How Rye Whiskey evolved from Jack of Diamonds and the earlier forms of "Up on Clench Mountain" or "Wagoner's Lad" is uncertain, as there appears to be no resources on a direct link. However, it's probably that Rye Whiskey evolved out of Jack of Diamonds, as some of the verses nod towards Jack of Diamonds in the lyrics.
Here's the lyrics in its entirety from the version collected by the Lomaxes
O MOLLIE, O Mollie, it is for your sake alone That I leave my old parents, my house and my home, That I leave my old parents, you caused me to
roam,I am a rabble soldier and Dixie is my home.
Jack o' diamonds, Jack o' diamonds,
I know you of old,
You've robbed my poor pockets
Of silver and gold.
Whiskey, you villain,
You've been my downfall,
You've kicked me, you've cuffed me.
But I love you for all.
My foot's in my stirrup, my bridle's in my hand, I'm going to leave sweet Mollie, the fairest in the
land. Her parents don't like me, they say I'm too poor, They say I'm unworthy to enter her door.
They say I drink whiskey; my money is my own, And them that don't like me can leave me alone. I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry, And when I get thirsty I'll lay down and cry.
This is the version most closely covered by RDR2, although it added lyrics more specific to Tex Ritter's version (If the ocean was whiskey, and I was a duck/ I'd dive to the bottom and never come up.)
Here's a lovely cover of the RDR2 version:
Camilla's Choice (Although I think the Pete Singer and Tex Ritter versions are more honest to the game hahaha)
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into this song. I had thought this would be a simple research, but it turns out I was vastly mistaken. I think that's probably pretty appropriate for old folk songs. For further reading on this song specifically, the blog Rye Patriotism has a pretty good dive on the subject, too.
PS: Angel's Envy makes a pretty damn good rye, but if you can find old bottles of Utah's High West Rendezvous Rye, that might be my personal favorite.
