Let's clear this up right now. "Give the Fiddler a Dram" was written by Dakota Dave Hull, a to-this-day close friend whom I met in my late teens, and me. Dave is responsible for the melody, and I wrote the lyrics, taking the title from the old fiddle tune. Jerry Holland, the Canadian fiddler, had nothing to do with it. I believe that falsehood started with Garnet Rogers's cover of the song. Aside from that Jim Ringer, who would have done it marvelously, was going to record the song but died first. Dave cut it on an early album with the late Sean Blackburn.

The inspiration for the song, composed in the mid-1970s, was a story two friends passed on about an experience while living on a remote, poverty-stricken Indian reservation in Dunseith, North Dakota, not far from the Canadian border. Audrey, the female half of the couple, taught at the school there. She and her husband Vic had many tales to tell. One was about an old man who regularly wandered through the town playing his fiddle while under the influence. As I heard that story, I immediately thought "Give the Fiddler a Dram," and later Dave and I collaborated on the song.