Any one in 'old time' music in those days borrowed pretty liberally from others. Guthrie just preferred his own political lyrics to the centuries-old words about the vagaries of back-country romance, tracing back to the British Isles. Most of the Carter family's signature songs were not only very old tunes, but like "Blackberry Blossom" often their versions had the words so badly garbled they were nonsense in spots..

No I'm not a big fan of 'old time' country music, but one of my best friends in grad school loved the stuff... and classical opera. Go figure!