For a moment I thought Dale was back, but then I saw the date before Mick's posting.

There's an interesting early recording of the song on the first volume of the excellent 2-CD Yazoo set: Various Artists 'Hard Times Come Again No More: Early American Rural Songs of Hard Times and Hardships - Classic Recordings from 1920s and 30s' Yazoo 2036. It is by the Graham Brothers, about whom no information is given - probably because nothing is known. It sounds a bit odd after the versions we are used to hearing - there is piano backing and the chorus is sung in quite a sprightly manner, almost jauntily. They dispense with the 'poor drooping maiden' stanza. In his notes, Charles Wolfe points out 'Hard Times' was penned during the recession of 1854 - six years before the Civil War and, as the years wore on, farmers, factory workers, railroad men and even cowboys felt the anger and frustration of economic hardship, and many responded to it with songs. This and other Yazoo compilations in its 2000 series are well worth seeking out with their mixture of songs from both black and white traditions.

--Stewie.