OK, Ray, I'll 'fess up. I cheated a bit. I wasn't sure of "close" because I had never heard that usage before. So I also listened to a sound sample of the New Lost City Ramblers singing the same song, which I found at Yahoo! They clearly sing "stoke" instead of "close", and "stoke" made more sense to me, so that's what I wrote. I probably should have explained that in the first place.

So what does it mean to close a fire? Put it out? Bank it? Close the door of the stove?

By the way, did anybody notice the similarity of the imagery between this song and MY HANDY MAN?