I first hear Arthur McBride in the early 70's when Erik Frandsen toured through the campus coffee house in Auburn New York. As I recall Erik's version was quite remarkable but I don't recall an alt tuning. Erik is a great guitarist and singer as well.   I found a video of Paul Brady doing Arthur McBride and was taken first by the style and knew it wasn't standard tuning. And then I realized he was playing a Yamaha FG-180 just like mine. Brady's version must be the definitive version by now.

Don Meixner