"Little Brown Jug" is a song written in 1869 by Joseph Eastburn Winner, originally published in Philadelphia with the author listed as Winner's middle name "Eastburn". It was originally a drinking song. It remained well known as a folk song into the early 20th century. Like many songs which make reference to alcohol, it enjoyed new popularity during the Prohibition era. In 1939, bandleader Glenn Miller recorded and broadcast his swing instrumental arrangement of the tune with great success and the number became one of the best known orchestrations of the American Big Band era. I remember singing this as a child. My teatotaling family either ignored he alcholic references or changed the words. I can't remember which. I think we only used the first verse. Despite its stage origins, the tune quickly entered traditional repertoire and was widely disseminated. "Little Brown Jug" was cited as having commonly been played at Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and it was known at the same time at the other end of the country by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, who said, "many an amateur plays this simple old song" (Shumway). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountains fiddlers in the early 1940's. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell learned the tune from his father, because the lyric "tickled" him. African-American fiddler Cuje Bertram (Ky.) recorded the tune in 1970 on a home recording made for his family. Another African-American fiddler, North Carolinian Joe Thompson, played the tune in FCGD tuning. It was recorded on a 78 RPM by Kanawha County, West Virginia fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975). It was printed in Adam's Old Time Fiddlers' Favorite Barn Dance Tunes (1928), Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981), Cazden's Dances from Woodland (1945), Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940), Jarman's Square Dance Tunes, Lovett's Good Morning (1943), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994), Ruth's Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948), Silberberg's Fiddle Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern (2002) and Sweet's Fifer's Delight (1964/1981). It was recorded by James Morrison and His Orchestra (1929), Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (1939) and Tommy Jarrell on Pickin' on Tommy's Porch (1984).