Joy - "I'm stil a watchin' watchin' watchin'..." what a facinating thread. It seems most pf the US versions were sourced in he Ozarks. I seem to recall that those "mountain men" had a reputation for preserving old Euro[ean songs in a relatively unmodified form up to the 1939-59s, when Lomax et al started recording.

WWW (Weave a Wonerful Web) out of the threads of people, thoughts, words and tunes who made a worldcwide web in the early-mid 1800s - and we think the WWW is new?

Anyway, despite having knocked up a few local and topical NZ verses for "Dodgers" in the 60s, the song never got into our NZ "folk tradition".... Mumuble.... Keep up the good work Joy, Q, and others...

I'll kee[ watchin'

Cheers - Sam