Paul Clayton collected the song from Maybird McAllister in Brown's Cove, Virginia, probably in the late 1950's. The only other report of the song with which I am familiar was from Mary Celestia Parler (Vance Randolph's wife) who asked me if I'd ever come across the song. She had found a version in Arkansas which she thought was unique, but I've never heard that one sung. Paul's collected original has been altered, inadvertently, as we all passed the song along, and yet all of us, Bonnie, Ed Trickett, Harry Tuft, the Armstrong family, me, and anyone else singing the song nowadays, have the song from that one informant: Maybird McAllister.

Sandy