Drinking songs are part of bluegrass from the start. Some come straight out of the old-time tradition — “Hot Corn, Cold Corn,” “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane,” “Mountain Dew” — songs about moonshine and the trouble it brings, sung at house parties long before bluegrass had a name. Others arrived through honky-tonk country, like Merle Haggard’s “Back to the Barrooms” and Hank Williams cutting Leon Payne’s “Lost Highway.” Bluegrass took them all in. The Stanley Brothers, the Osborne Brothers, the Dillards, and later writers like Gillian Welch and Townes Van Zandt kept adding to the pile. Liquor in these songs is rarely just a good time. It’s usually grief, escape, or the slow road down.

These 18 are the ones you’ll hear called at jams. Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings to learn from, and the song’s history. Start with the ones you already half-know.