Early in his recording career in 1937, Bukka White was arrested and convicted for a shooting incident and was sentenced to Parchman Farm prison in rural Sunflower County, Mississippi.

The institution was operated as a hard-time prison labor work farm, which was notorious for its harsh conditions and use of the trusty system.

[5] His lyrics allude to his time at Parchman: Oh listen you men, I don't mean no harm (2×) If you wanna do good, you better stay off ol' Parchman farm We got to work in the mornin', just at dawn of day (2×) Just at the settin' of the sun, that's when the work is done White never denied responsibility for the shooting, which he claimed was in self-defense: "I shot him where I wanted to shoot him.

According to music historian Ted Gioia, "the rollicking, carefree ethos of 'The Panama Limited', of 'Shake 'Em On Down', is replaced by a darker, more introspective mood in his later recordings.

A brief review in the Amsterdam News in July 1940 referred to White's songs as "folk music" and not part of any current popular style.

[2] Subsequently, he only performed sporadically until his rediscovery during the American folk music revival in the early 1960s, when Bob Dylan and others began recording his songs, such as "Fixin' to Die Blues".

The song is performed by a trio with Allison on vocal and piano, backed by Addison Farmer on bass and Nick Stabulas on drums.