[Guest Q is not member Q].

An interesting website on songs from the coal mines here:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mines.html
Coal Mine Songs

Put titles of these songs in the Lyrics and Knowledge 'Search box', and one will find links to Mudcat threads on most of them (try several word combinations; some are listed with mis-spellings or odd titles; never use caps in search words. Use as few words as possible in the search box- longer lists show up but the likelihood of getting a 'hit' improves.). Do the same with the listed composers.

dark as a dungeon, or better, dungeon, yields links to threads with information, some good and some false.

Merle Travis was a fine song writer; as far as has been established, the song is original with him, both words and music. He, and a few others, like Jay Ungar, have written music that sounds traditional because of its beauty, aptness and simplicity.