Greetings. I need to determine the provenance of a song in case I need legal permission to reprint the lyrics in a book to be published next year by St. martin's press. the song was sung to me by my aunts; they learned it in maine in the 1930s, but i suspect it's much older than that. It does seem to have something in common with the Cowboy Lariat song, yet it seems different. Anybody ever heard of it?
My aunts swear it was recorded on an old record they had on one of the early model record players during the Depression.
Here are the lyrics that I know of:
"The engineer looked straight ahead
As the train sped thru the night
But he's only a bum, only a bum
The last night he slept in some farmer's barn.
Tonight he sleeps in heaven."

bethharpaz@hotmail.com