Old Joe Clark

The strongest claim for the real Joe Clark points to Clay County, Kentucky. That Joe Clark was born in 1839, served about six months in the Union Army, then farmed, kept a store and ran a licensed moonshine still. He had plenty of enemies and was shot dead behind his store in 1886. Kentucky historical marker #1382 stands at Sexton's Creek near his grave, though the marker gives the year as 1885.

Other places have their own Joe Clark. Mike Seeger passed on the story told in Rockbridge County, Virginia: a Clark family settled near Irish Creek in the early 1800s, and a suitor turned away by Joe Clark's daughter is said to have written the song out of spite. Collectors have found no 19th century printing of the tune, and the earliest mention is a note that East Tennessee singers had it in 1905.

Records made it a standard. Fiddlin' Cowan Powers and Family's 1924 recording was the third best selling country record of that year, and the Skillet Lickers' 1926 version was fourth for theirs. Vance Randolph recorded Ozark fiddlers playing it for the Library of Congress in the early 1940s.