

Prompt / Lyrics
Verse 1 There’s smoke in the holler tonight Rising slow through the trees Not the sweet kind that carries corn But something heavier on the breeze No copper pot, no mash run No jars lined up to cool Just pinewood stacked by the river bend And a man who broke a rule Pre-Chorus Dogs start barking up on Miller’s ridge Blue lights cut through black Sheriff thinks he smells a still But he’s chasing the wrong track Chorus (Choir Singing) There’s smoke in the holler But it ain’t from a moonshine brew It’s sweat and sin and gasoline And something I had to do Let the law come climbing Let him curse my name There’s smoke in the holler Burning more than cane Verse 2 Mama thinks I’m cooking shine Like Daddy used to make She don’t ask what’s in that fire Or why my hands still shake I dug that pit at daylight Where the river mud runs thin Some debts don’t fit in ledger books And some sins don’t wash off skin Bridge Sheriff walks that riverbank Boot heels in the ash Says he smells something bitter That it don’t smell like moonshine mash He kicks through charred pine splinters Finds nothing he can hold Fire don’t leave a witness And the Sheriffs trail runs cold Final Verse (Reveal) That fire wasn’t for whiskey Up there on that peak That brazen man stopped breathing Long before he reached that creek He thought the ridge would hide him He thought he could confide He thought I wouldn’t find him Until that night he died Final Chorus (Choir Singing) There’s smoke in the holler Rising quiet through the pines Let the sheriff hunt for moonshine He won’t find a single sign When the morning air turns bitter And the embers fell still There’s smoke in the holler And no one left to tell
Tags
Gritty southern outlaw country, ominous, intensity building throughout
3:03
No
2/18/2026