This song was apparently recorded in the 1940s by Acuff and his band (the Smoky Mountain Boys).
One of the ‘Boys’ was the pioneering dobro player ‘Brother’ Oswald Kirby, (whose playing I vividly remember from Acuff’s appearances on ‘Hee Haw’ in the early 1970s).
Kirby recorded the first all-dobro instrumental album in 1971 which featured the aforementioned tune. The instrumental version of the song is extremely beautiful, and profoundly sad. (It is not to be confused with the early-1960s Skeeter Davis hit of the same name).
As a fledgling dobro player, I have learned this tune, and would like to know what the lyrics are, if anyone here remembers them.
(Incidentally, the album is an absolute masterpiece: sparse, sweet, slow-handed picking. I have never heard more moving instrumental music).