[1] It tells the story of a man who is apprehended after shooting a woman, in some versions his wife or girlfriend.
[2] This lyric fragment, transcribed in Joplin, Missouri, is noted in the 1948 book Ozark Folksongs, Vol.
II, under the title "Bad Lee Brown":Last night I was a-makin' my rounds, Met my old woman an' I blowed her down, I went on home to go to bed, Put my old cannon right under my head.
This version was covered by Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead, Crooked Still, Doc Watson, and George Thorogood, among others.
Some versions refer to the Sheriff of Thomasville, North Carolina apprehending the murderer "down in" Jericho, South Carolina[5] (a large rice plantation in the lowlands).