Sorry it's been so long, y'all...

It's way too cold to go out busking now, at least for someone like me who fled to warmer climes so many years ago. But I have learned this song pretty thoroughly; in fact, it's just about all I ever play these days ~ just difficult enough that it remains a bit of a challenge each time I pull the guitar out of its case, at least until I get my fingers thoroughly warmed up!

I still haven't learned that introductory "verse," because none of the recordings I've heard (including the performance linked-to in this thread) include it. But that's OK: since nobody else seems to bother with the verse, I don't have to use it either.

To those who asked for more info on my guitar's survival and my own: I've been working offline on a brief-as-possible summary of my bizarre experiences since Katrina, for this and other online communities in which I participate. Still not complete and ready for public consumption, unfortunately ~ one major reason is that I've become much less motivated, and less able, to read and write like I used to, after months of 24-7 "caregving" for my severely demented mother. We recently moved Mom out of the house and into a very nice assisted-living facility, so I'm on the road to recovery, but still not quite up to the task of creating a nice succinct-but-inclusive autobiographical essay.

Back on the first day I opened this thread, Bard Judith suggested:

And if I may suggest this without sounding too dreadfully facetious, you could try writing new words for the classic "House of the Rising Sun"...

Actually, I've given some thought to the task of writing new lyrics for an existing foksong classic, but not that one ~ what I have in mind is something I already love to play instrumentally, to wit: "Lakes of Pontchartrain"...

"One stormy August afternoon / We left New Orleans behind..."

(Four months after beginning our exodus, that's as far as I've gotten... But it is a pretty good idea, no?)