For most of the past year, my set-closer (and this the last song I sang) has been "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans." Not traditional-folk by any means ~ I think it was written for a movie musical ~ but it has very emotional associations in the particular time and place in which I find myself, and thus is becoming kind of "traditional" in its own way.

If you had asked a month or two ago, after one of my previous appaearances at the local cofffeehouse, my answer would have been Dave Van Ronk's "Last Call," which I use as a closing number only when the mood (and my voice) is absolutely right.

This is a much more traditional sounding number, sung unaccompanied with a more-or-less sean nos approach, but it's a modern compsition. Well, the words, at least, were written fairly recently (1980s?); the melody may have been appropriated from a truly traditional source. (If DVR's music as well as his lyrics were truly original, he did a very impressive job of writing a melody that sounds absolutely ancient.)