“Mountain Dew” (full title “Good Old Mountain Dew”) was originally written and recorded by the North Carolina lawyer, balladeer, and folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928. Lunsford wrote the song from his experience as a lawyer practicing in rural Western North Carolina during Prohibition; the original verses drew on his work defending clients accused of moonshining. He cut the song for Brunswick Records in 1928, paired it with a banjo accompaniment, and the song circulated quietly through the regional folk scene.
The song’s familiar form is largely the work of Scott Wiseman, who in 1935 needed a final cut to complete a Lulu Belle and Scotty session for Vocalion Records. Wiseman approached Lunsford, who sold the rights to him for $25 — just enough to buy a train ticket back to North Carolina. Wiseman replaced Lunsford’s courtroom verses with new lyrics about hill-country moonshine production, added the now-canonical chorus, and the Lulu Belle and Scotty recording introduced “Mountain Dew” to a wide commercial audience.
To his credit, Wiseman quietly returned half of the song’s royalties to Lunsford for the rest of Lunsford’s life. The song has been recorded by countless artists since — from Roy Acuff to Willie Nelson to Billy Strings — and remains one of the most reliably called bluegrass jam-session standards.
