Cotton Eye Joe, what's your opinion about that song?

[haele]

22. Always thought it was about a moon-shiner.

Just like "My girl loves a Hog-Eye Man" is about a girl who hung around with the men who worked on the flat boat barges, apparently known as "Hog Eye" boats in some areas of Ohio and Kentucky during the mid 1800's.
My grandpappy played bluegrass banjo and delta blues saxephone during WWII while he worked admin for the Navy in California. Then he played backup musician after the war when he the evenings off after work, so mom and uncle learned a lot of interesting folk songs. Pretty good for an immigrant kid who worked coal mines in Pennsylvania when he was 8.