Though the spelling is unusual, there has been so much written about this tune, from Kerry Belch’s on line notes for Molsky’s Soon Be Time recording, to Kuntz’s web site and many more. The origin is unknown, but pre-dates the Civil War. Some of the words are in “dialect,” presupposing an African American connection. As with all of the Hamblen settings of familiar tunes, they present differences that make them unique. This is written for the fiddle in the key of G, but it lays better in D on my banjo.