BILL and Earl Bolick---the great old-timey brother duo---did it pretty early on. Also, the version I do is one I got from LEE O.B. QUIGGINS of Butler County, Kentucky. When I met Lee he was playing a beat-up old Matin on Main Street in downtownEvansville, Indiana----July 21st, 1960.

He was a blind street-singerplaying for cash on the street. He sang it there and then---I wrote it down. Later that day---night actually---I went up to the room Lee had at the Old Lincoln Hotel in E-ville and taped about an hour of Mr. Quiggins (who I've elaborated on in other threads here.) Those reel-to-reel tapes deterriorated over the years and I never could save it like I did with about 5 of his songs. (Got those onto a cassette and a friend digitized 'em recently and they're now with Joe Hickerson and scheduled to go into the L. of Congress Archives.)

Later, before I did a recording of the song, I took several snatches and lines from the Mary Wheeler book from the 1940s, STEAMBOATIN' DAYS, and fleshed out the song some. Dillon Bustin and many others used that little volume to make some fine songs. I list my version as traditional and that is where it should be to my way o' thinking. It has gone through the process actually known as "the oral tradition"---the crucible that MAKES songs into folksongs.

Even if coppywritten, who the hell really knows ? The waters get muddy --- and that makes the search so much fun.

Love,

Art Thieme