Damn, a thread revived that I was in back in '98. Nothing to add, really, except that Chris Smither's version is very much a carbon copy of Tom Rush's (both fairly close to van Ronk's). Duncan was a barkeep running an illegal game; Brady a (no doubt corrupt) lawman who'd "been on the job too long" - has both "shinin' star" and "electric car" references; Duncan shot a hole in King Brady's chest ("Brady, Brady, Brady, well you know you done wrong, bustin' in here while my game was goin' on")

And of course on hearing King Brady was dead, the women all went home and reragged in red (echo of, or echoed in Kweskin's "Ella Speed.")