"Cumberland Gap" is an Appalachian folk song that likely dates to the latter half of the 19th century and was first recorded in 1924. The song is typically played on banjo or fiddle, and well-known versions of the song include instrumental versions as well as those with lyrics. A version of the song appeared in John Lomax's 1934 book American Ballads and Folk Songs. Woody Guthrie recorded a version of the song at his Folkways sessions in the mid-1940s, and the song saw a resurgence in popularity with the rise of bluegrass and the folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s. The short easy tune (also used for the chorus) is easy to improvise instrumental breaks. The Cumberland Gap is a pass in the Appalachians between upper Tennessee and Kentucky. It is through this passage in the mountains that Daniel Boone in 1773 led a group of pioneers into Kentucky along his famous Wilderness Road. It was recorded ny Uncle Am Stuart (1924), Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett (1924), Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers (1928, 1933), Frank Hutchison (1929), Woody Guthrie (1944), Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1949), Pete Seeger (1954), Wade Ward (1959), Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (1961), Dock Boggs (1963) Hobart Smith (1963), Fred Cockerman (1967), Kyle Creed (1977) and many others. It has been printed in Pete Seeger's The Bells of Rhymney and Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America. I have known it for so long I can't remember where I learned it or from whom.