Identified on AFS card as "The Hard-Working Miner." A song by that name - same tune but different text - was collected by George Korson for the LOC in Braeholm, W.Va. and in Harlan, in 1940.
Originally:
Lomax, John A. and Lomax, Alan. American Ballads and Folk Songs. The MacMillan Company, 1934. (Includes songs collected from James (Blind Jim) Howard).
Currently:
Lomax, John A. and Lomax, Alan. American Ballads and Folk Songs. Dover Publications, 1994.
Vowell announces that he learned the song "from an old English aunt of mine... over fifty year ago." AFS card identifies performance as "I'm a-gonna hold out till the end."