Gordon Bok modified the Lomax song with some sea coast words of his own. I recorded the Texas song (taken from the Lomax collection) back in 1965 on a record I made for Folk-Legacy that is now available only as a "custom cassette." Peggy Seeger first introduced me to the song; I'm pretty sure she recorded it somewhere. Harry Tuft also recorded it.

I always assumed it was based on an older Irish song, but have no evidence of that. It's related to the Wagoner's Lad (sometimes written as "waggoner's") - "My horses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay... etc." which Cecil Sharp considered English enough to include in his English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Didn't John A. Lomax claim he got the song from a stove-up old cowboy who had been reduced to working at some menial job in Austin, Texas? That's a story that rattles around in the back of my mind, anyway.

Sandy