Merle Travis lived among and learned to play from coal miners in and around Muhlenberg Co. Kentucky. Mose Rager, one of Merle's most important influences, was a coal miner who eventually became a barber. Merle's family were coal miners. I think maybe even Ike Everly, another of Merle's influences, spent some time in the mines before becoming a professional musician. Merle knew a great deal about miners and coal mining.

Merle was already an established country artist when his recording company (Capital?) asked him (ca. 1946) to record an album of folk songs. Merle's response was "I don't know any folk songs." "Then write some," he was told. Sixteen Tons and Dark As A Dungeon were among the songs he wrote and recorded for the project. The songs weren't commercially successful and Merle always claimed he never liked any of them; that is until Tennessee Ernie Ford made Sixteen Tons a million seller ten years after Merle's recording.

Merle was a gifted song writer as well as a monumental musician. I've never heard of anyone claiming that Dark As A Dungeon wasn't entirely original.

      - Mark