Merle Travis said: "I first heard a version of this song from Lyman Rager, who learned it while he was in the Elkton, Kentucky jail. I rewrote it, rearranged it, and added to it." (quoted in Dorothy Horstman, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, newly revised & expanded ed. (Country Music Foundation Press, 1996, p. 48)
~Masato