Dan Emmett (1815-1904) was one of the most successful of the New York minstrel composers. He's credited with writing, among other songs, "Turkey in the Straw", "Old Dan Tucker", and "Blue-Tail Fly". Emmett also took credit for the first version of "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" for an 1853 New York minstrel show. It was hugely popular and spread via traveling shows. There's some evidence that he took an existing song and substituted political and topical verses. In that way it is similar to "Ain't No Bugs On Me". Uncle Dave Macon (1870-1952), banjo picker, singer and entertainer, was the first Grand Ol' Opry performer to become immensely popular, even though he was in his mid-50s when he began performing. He recorded about 200 songs during his career, including this one (1927). When Macon was a teenager, his parents ran a boarding house in Nashville's theater section and young Dave learned songs and banjo tricks from the traveling minstrel performers who stayed there. He undoubtedly learned this song from some of them and naturally recomposed the verses to fit modern times.