Here's an amateur video which shows what the landscape is like around Lake Ponchartrain. The camera shakes sometime, and you need to turn your volume down to nothing so you don't hear the irritating lounge music which the maker added as background. But it's worth seeing the kind of country where the lost soldier/criminal found himself after running from trouble.

cypresses and water

See how strange it is? See how different it is from Texas, Tennessee, New Orleans or Ireland? How does he make a living, how does he survive here? He's totally dependent on the people who helped him and who knew the way of life in the bayous.

When you sing this, try to get that landscape into the song.