Though I llve far from Texas, I've known the song ever since I was a little kid. I'm pretty sure that I first heard it in a singing-cowboy movie. I have a clear memory of being stunned as I grasped that the melody was from "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Till then I had no idea you could set a single melody to a host of song lyrics.

Many years later, when I grew up and discovered traditional music, I thought of that moment in my childhood when my life was opened to this intriguing possibility.