"Worried Man Blues"  is a folk song in the roots music repertoire.  It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 4753.  Like many folk songs passed by oral tradition, the lyrics vary from version to version, but generally all contain the chorus "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song / It takes a worried man to sing a worried song / I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long."  The verses tell the story of a man imprisoned for unknown reasons – "I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep / When I woke up, had shackles on my feet", who pines for his lost love, who is "on the train and gone."  The song was recorded by Woody Guthrie in 1940, and in the years that followed by his sometime singing partners Cisco Houston, Burl Ives, Ramblin' Jack Elliott (with Derroll Adams), and Pete Seeger.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

In 1944, Woody Guthrie met with Moe Asch of Folkways Records, where he first recorded "This Land is Your Land", plus "Worried Man Blues" and hundreds of other songs. 

(March 2015)