Work was born in Akron, Ohio, but moved to Dukedom, Tennessee, with his family at age two.
He picked up guitar at age seven, and learned fiddle and songwriting by his early teens.
By 1945, he had begun playing professionally in Pontiac, Michigan, where many Southerners had moved to take jobs in the automotive industry.
Work then signed with Decca Records in 1949 and that same year appeared for the first time on the Grand Ole Opry and on Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree.
He worked as a millwright at the Goodyear plant in Union City, Tennessee, for several years before fully retiring.