Having taken lessons as a child from Clayton McMichen, he played the fiddle his entire life.
In his later years he played at the narrow gauge train station in Silverton, Colorado.
In 1979, the song was recorded by American country music artist Johnny Lee.
A remixed version was re-released in October 1982 as the first single from Lee's album Sounds Like Love.
The 1982 remix features backing vocals from Murphey and Rosemary Butler and fiddle by Charlie Daniels,[1] while the original mix features backing vocals from Butler, Marcy Levy and Tom Kelly and fiddle by Byron Berline.