Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
I heard Kisses Sweeter than Wine performed by Jimmie Rodgers on the radio as a child.
I liked the tune and read it came from an old folk song about a milk cow, Drimindown, which the American folk and blues singer Leadbelly learned from an Irish traditional singer in New York.
This led me down a rabbit hole and a 20 year search for recordings of that song. At first I only wanted to find the source of the tune, but I quickly realised that the song itself is quite interesting and certainly not well documented.
00:00:00 Drimindown (1956) - Ernest Sellick
00:03:02 Drimindown (1954) - Charles Cates
00:05:53 Drimindown (1950) - Ed McCurdy
00:07:43 Drimindown (1956) - Ed McCurdy
00:10:34 Droimeann Donn (1982) - Tim Galvin
00:10:59 Drimmendoo (1955) - Fred Smith
00:14:11 Dream Adieu (1938) - Fred Thomas
00:15:03 Dhrimen Dhown Dheelish (1926) - James D. Casey
00:18:07 Dhrinnin Dhu Dhrinnin (1959) - David Sear
00:20:00 If it Wasn't for Dicky (1936) - Leadbelly
00:23:58 If it Wasn't for Dicky (1941) - Leadbelly
00:26:17 Kisses Sweeter than Wine (1965) - Pete Seeger
It's a macaronic song with verses in English and a chorus in Gaelic, garbled to varying degrees in texts from recent oral tradition. It survived well in Canada where 3 full texts (Carrie Grover, Ernest Sellick, Fred Smith) and two fragments (Charles Cates, Jas. Creelman) originated.
There's much flawed information online because people frequently confuse this song with a Gaelic one usually titled "An Droimeann Donn Dílis". The Gaelic song uses the cow as a political metaphor to express grief for Ireland. It's unrelated in words and tune to the song about the old man who lost his cow and I'm assuming the shared name is a coincidence.
Another problem are the many variant spellings I encountered. It makes it difficult to search for information on this song online when the title is spelled in many different ways.
Droimeann Donn is Gaelic and means white-backed cow. The Droimeann cow is an ancient, endangered breed of cattle in Ireland (primarily in Munster) officially recognised as a rare native breed in 2020. I can't prove it, but I'm convinced the song refers to this cattle breed.
How did "Kisses Sweeter than Wine" come to be?
American folk and blues singer Hudson "Huddie" Ledbetter ("Lead Belly") settled in New York City in February 1936. One time at a Greenwich Village party he heard the Irish traditional singer, Sam Kennedy, singing a song about a milk cow, "Drimindown". He asked Kennedy to write it down for him so he could learn it. Huddie performed it in his own style on his 12-string guitar, with much greater emphasis on rhythm.
Huddie's version became known as "If it Wasn't for Dicky" (It's a mournful ditty), he garbled some of the words from the Irish original.
Pete Seeger heard him perform it in 1949. He liked the tune but couldn't remember the words. So he started singing "Oh, oh, kisses sweeter than wine" instead. In 1950 his partner in The Weavers, Lee Hays, wrote new verses.
The song was a mild success in the US for The Weavers in 1951, but later became a bigger hit when country singer Jimmie Rodgers covered it in 1957. Frankie Vaughan also had success with it in the UK in 1958.
I heard Kisses Sweeter than Wine performed by Jimmie Rodgers on the radio as a child.
I liked the tune and read it came from an old folk song about a milk cow, Drimindown, which the American folk and blues singer Leadbelly learned from an Irish traditional singer in New York.
This led me down a rabbit hole and a 20 year search for recordings of that song. At first I only wanted to find the source of the tune, but I quickly realised that the song itself is quite interesting and certainly not well documented.
00:00:00 Drimindown (1956) - Ernest Sellick
00:03:02 Drimindown (1954) - Charles Cates
00:05:53 Drimindown (1950) - Ed McCurdy
00:07:43 Drimindown (1956) - Ed McCurdy
00:10:34 Droimeann Donn (1982) - Tim Galvin
00:10:59 Drimmendoo (1955) - Fred Smith
00:14:11 Dream Adieu (1938) - Fred Thomas
00:15:03 Dhrimen Dhown Dheelish (1926) - James D. Casey
00:18:07 Dhrinnin Dhu Dhrinnin (1959) - David Sear
00:20:00 If it Wasn't for Dicky (1936) - Leadbelly
00:23:58 If it Wasn't for Dicky (1941) - Leadbelly
00:26:17 Kisses Sweeter than Wine (1965) - Pete Seeger
It's a macaronic song with verses in English and a chorus in Gaelic, garbled to varying degrees in texts from recent oral tradition. It survived well in Canada where 3 full texts (Carrie Grover, Ernest Sellick, Fred Smith) and two fragments (Charles Cates, Jas. Creelman) originated.
There's much flawed information online because people frequently confuse this song with a Gaelic one usually titled "An Droimeann Donn Dílis". The Gaelic song uses the cow as a political metaphor to express grief for Ireland. It's unrelated in words and tune to the song about the old man who lost his cow and I'm assuming the shared name is a coincidence.
Another problem are the many variant spellings I encountered. It makes it difficult to search for information on this song online when the title is spelled in many different ways.
Droimeann Donn is Gaelic and means white-backed cow. The Droimeann cow is an ancient, endangered breed of cattle in Ireland (primarily in Munster) officially recognised as a rare native breed in 2020. I can't prove it, but I'm convinced the song refers to this cattle breed.
How did "Kisses Sweeter than Wine" come to be?
American folk and blues singer Hudson "Huddie" Ledbetter ("Lead Belly") settled in New York City in February 1936. One time at a Greenwich Village party he heard the Irish traditional singer, Sam Kennedy, singing a song about a milk cow, "Drimindown". He asked Kennedy to write it down for him so he could learn it. Huddie performed it in his own style on his 12-string guitar, with much greater emphasis on rhythm.
Huddie's version became known as "If it Wasn't for Dicky" (It's a mournful ditty), he garbled some of the words from the Irish original.
Pete Seeger heard him perform it in 1949. He liked the tune but couldn't remember the words. So he started singing "Oh, oh, kisses sweeter than wine" instead. In 1950 his partner in The Weavers, Lee Hays, wrote new verses.
The song was a mild success in the US for The Weavers in 1951, but later became a bigger hit when country singer Jimmie Rodgers covered it in 1957. Frankie Vaughan also had success with it in the UK in 1958.
