The notes which accompany the reissue CD of the Folkways recordings of Dock Boggs relate that Dock learned the song from Lee Hunsucker, from whom he learned several of the songs recorded on the folkways set. Hunsucker was a singer only, played no instruments, and Dock said that he had a knack for listening to songs and memorizing them nearly word for word on the second listen-through.

"Reprints From Sing Out Vol. 9" has the song (also The Collected RFS Vols. 7-12) and notes that another recorded version is on Alan Lomax's "Southern Journey Volume One" performed by Bessie Jones of the Georgia Sea Islands. The only reference is a mention that "The power in the folk poetry of this song matches, I think, the best of the learned poets in its vividness."