Pvt. Hacker and the other soldiers recorded were members of the Tenth Infantry at Fort Thomas. Each announces their particular company following their performances.
Currently as: Lomax, John A., Alan Lomax, and Ruth Crawford Seeger. Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Folk Songs and Ballads. Dover, 2000.
Followed by discussion about provenance of the tune, which Steele learned from a Harlan Co. man en route to World War I. Identified as "Rambling Hobo" on AFS card, but Steele had no other name for it and just called it a hoedown.
Mrs. Steele recalls learning the song from a "ballet" bought from a blind peddler (likely Charlie Oaks, the composer) at the Laurel Co. Fair, circa 1913. First line: "In Knox county an awful crime occurred near Barboursville."
In discussion following, Mrs. Steele recalls learning the song from the Snell boys in Whitley Co. Identified as "The Knoxville Girl" on AFS card, although beginning is cut off and no other reference to a Knoxville girl is made in the song.
Steele says he learned the tune from a record in Harlan Co., but admits he might have added some elements himself - it bears little resemblance to the Samantha Bumgarner and Frank Hutchison records of the same name. AFS card identifies it as "The Weary Blues," but Steele sings "worried" and clearly calls it "The Worried Blues."?¨