You've all got me wondering what record I heard this song on back in the 1950's. I was thinking it might have been one of collector-singer Frank Warner's earlier recordings but I just checked my two albums and the song's not listed. Was it Burl Ives or Ed McCurdy?

I was always bothered by the line "He never hired a tar!" which I assumed was a reference to good old Irish racism, kind of stopped me in my tracks so to speak from singing it. I suppose I could have figured out a way to re-word the line or dropped the verse all together.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble