<P> Along with being an amateur folklorist and musician, Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer practicing in rural North Carolina during the 1920s . At the time, the manufacturing of beverage alcohol for non-medicinal purposes was illegal in the United States due to prohibition, but North Carolina residents nevertheless continued their longstanding tradition of making a form of illegal whiskey called moonshine . Lunsford frequently defended local clients that were accused of the practice, and the original lyrics and banjo accompaniment to "Good Old Mountain Dew" were written during the course of one of these cases . In 1928, Lunsford recorded the song for Brunswick Records . </P> <P> Scotty Wiseman, of the duo Lulu Belle and Scotty, was a friend of Lunsford's . When Lulu Belle and Scotty needed one more song to finish a 1935 record for Vocalion Records, Wiseman suggested using the song his friend had written . To make the piece appeal to more people, Wiseman added the modern chorus and replaced verses about a man appearing in court with verses about making moonshine . Two years later, at the National Folk Festival in Chicago, Wiseman showed his version to Lunsford . Lunsford was impressed with it; later the same night, he sold the song to Wiseman for $25 ($339 in 2013) so he could buy a train ticket back to North Carolina . Wiseman copyrighted the song and made sure that 50% of the royalties it earned were given to Lunsford until Lunsford's death . </P> <P> - 1935 Refrain </P> <P> The 1928 version of "Good Old Mountain Dew" is close to the style of a ballad . The lyrics tell the story of a man's first day in court to answer charges of making illegal alcohol . In the first verse, the prosecutor closes his case . In the next three verses, several respected members of the community--the deacon, the doctor, and the conductor--visit the charged man, trying to buy his whiskey . In the final verse, the judge offers the young man clemency if he is willing to pay court costs for the trial . </P>

They call it that good ole mountain dew