“The Legend of the Johnson Boys,” usually known simply as “Johnson Boys,” is an old-time song and fiddle tune found across the southern mountains. It was first recorded in 1927 by Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters, and folklorists have traced its roots to older material, possibly an Irish song from around the middle of the nineteenth century.
The song’s words have always been loosely attached to the tune. In its better-known form it is a comic courting song about the Johnson boys, young men who could not, or would not, win a wife, though other versions carry different verses, including ones touched by the Civil War.
Flatt and Scruggs gave the song a bluegrass setting under the fuller title.
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