"Willie Moore" was recorded by Burnett & Rutherford recording (1927) reprinted in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Dick Burnett (1887-1977) lived in Monticello, Kentucky, played the banjo and sang. He was blinded by a robber's gunshot in 1907, and became an itinerant professional musician. According to the notes of the reissue of the Anthology, he composed "Man of Constant Sorrow" in 1913. In 1914, he joined up with a fellow Monticello native, Leonard Rutherford (then a teenager), who played fiddle. They made numerous recordings for Columbia in the 1920s, including this one. The words were from a printed broadside. Lyle Lofgren says that the music is the high part of an old ballad tune that was used for "Lady Margaret". The story is somewhat like Romeo and Juliet except that in this version, only Juliet feels strongly enough about the matter to commit suicide. The penultimate verse given here is not in the Burnett & Rutherford version, but was collected by Vance Randolph in Arkansas. It was also recorded by Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, Lyle Lofgren and others. It is in the Roud Folk Song Index #4816. It was printed in Randolph's Ozark Folksongs (1946-1950), The New Lost City Ramblers Songbook and Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger (1964).