Dad used to like the line "sometimes I get a notion, to jump in the river and drown". Partly just the language of it but also the way it expresses everyday frustrations. I think he also liked the way it was a cautionary tale, where Leadbelly reminds himself that rambling, gambling and staying out late at night lead only to despair (or in his case prison) and resolving to go back to his wife and family, "stay home by your fireside light".

Dad always thought that Leadbelly had written the song in prison, dedicated to the daughter of the prison governor, and thus gained early release. This does seem to have happened, but Wikipedia says it was a different song.