It was a way to indicate that the ballad was over. People I learned from did it for that reason and, sometimes, it felt right to do it because it signaled a finality. George Armstrong, Sandy Paton, Almeda Riddle on occasion. Aunt Molly Jackson. Horton Barker sometimes did it. I never heard Roscoe Holcomb do it. But sometimes I did it---but mostly not. In the instance of my performance of Craig Johnson's song "A North Country Tragedy" it was at the University Of Chicago Folk Festival and WFMT-FM happened to tape record it. A decade or two later we happened to use it on a CD. Pure chance.

Also, the song was a ballad spoof--a parody of the type. By doing that in a large concert setting, it was intended to be another something to spoof the ballad formality a little. ;-)

Art Thieme