Jim, Great new insights on and around this vivid song.
Songs like this, for me, are like riding a train through the night and seeing a rather quick GLIMPSE of a bit of real life and history. The only thing to do is commit it to memory for saving, and then for the showing of it to others.

Good people, THAT is what this collecting of the tradition is all about---the process of encountering people who are holding close these gems of exuberant life lived and loved enough for someone to create a "tune frame" to hold the concise imagery of profound poetic narrative simplicity.---------Please pardon my excitement; I do think nthese kinds of threads are the best of what happens at this good site.

Art