# Mull River Shuffle: selling the bush?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 25, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089 "2008-02-25T16:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089/1 "2008-02-25T16:13:19Z")

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I don’t know whether this should go into GQ or CS, but since it is about a song lyric, I’m putting it here.

In the Rankin Family’s wonderful song _The Mull River Shuffle_, there is a bit that says:

_There they stand by the door  
Selling bush by the score  
Asking you to buy some more  
Along the shores of 'Cocomagh_  
Selling the bush? Any of you Canadians out there care to tell me what they’re talking about?  
RR

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**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089/2 "2008-02-25T16:21:11Z")

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They aren’t saying bush, they’re saying hootch aka homemade booze.

Make sense now? 🙂

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**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089/3 "2008-02-25T16:42:22Z")

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[QUOTE=Flutterby]  
They aren’t saying bush, they’re saying hootch aka homemade booze.

Make sense now? 🙂  
[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I had trouble making the word out, and the lyrics sites all said “bush.” That wasn’t making a ton of sense to me.

RR

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**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089/4 "2008-02-25T17:00:41Z")

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Yeah it took me a bit to puzzle it out myself, I always sang along (to the great aggravation of my brother) and puzzled it out that way. I never thought it was bush though.

Weird how that works.

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**Author:** ![MacDaibhidh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MacDaibhidh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDaibhidh)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mull-river-shuffle-selling-the-bush/439089/5 "2023-10-13T18:01:26Z")

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“Bush” is very old Cape Breton slang for illegal liquor, a.k.a. moonshine.

The stills used to make this liquor were located in the wilds of Cape Breton’s Highlands and forested areas, usually a distance away from settlements, in order to conceal the activity from government revenue agents.

These isolated forested areas were named, in the colloquial language of the region, as “the bush”.

Because the liquor was distilled in the bush, it was referred to as “bush liquor”, or simply “bush”.