I just posted myself playing this song on YouTube for identification:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmKOrLc_9m0

Here is a copy of the text I put there:

This is a song my father often played on acoustic guitar.
I am playing the guitar in this video version, to the best of my recollection of how the guitar parts went. (2-28-12)

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TECHNICAL INFORMATION

meter: 4/4
key: B minor
chords:

Bm at the end

The key is unknown. I chose B minor because I had the impression that the bass notes on the chord alternated between 1 and 5 (B and F#) as you hear here,
and this is the nearest key to what I heard in my head regarding those bass notes.

The melody is about 95% certain here. The intro guitar lead was definitely from an exotic scale extremely close to what you hear here,
with exactly this rhythm and extremely close to these notes.
This is only the introduction to a song, and I don't remember anything about the other part of the song, other than that only the intro was memorable.
I believe this scale consists of the notes: 1 b2 b3 5 6 b7. This gives it a Middle Eastern or gypsy type sound.

genre: possibly Old Time, or Western Music
likely era of popularity: pre-1960s, probably pre-1950s, likely 1930s-1940s