An ambitious song to aim for with singing and playing.
There are two fundamentals you need to get right to improve.
The first is ensuring you are playing full bars of 4/4. The pinch is a quarter beat.
1 &
The pattern then has six 8th notes.
2 & 3 & 4 &
The second is to sing alobg without your guitar to really absorb the timing and phrasing of the vocal.
Hint.
You may wish to attend my upcoming ‘busy thumb’ vintage club.
@LievenDV @Richard_close2u ,
greatly appreciate the detailed advice. I feel I have so much invested in this song, improving to me is critical.
Thanks much!
Would not that be daradara, to add the & on 4 ? That did made me chuckle, as I used to chant something vaguely similar to get the feel into head, when first starting this odyssey. 
Regards the pinch, like you I do not use a thumb pick, so I am wondering if the B string is ringing out over the bass - not tried recording yet so will be mindful of that. Still fluffing up the bridge section and a few random chord changes stutter now and then but its getting there. I found going to the D#m, just fretting G bass note and not making the full chord shape helped the move, especially as the e string is not played/picked in the G. Took me a while to get combination working smoothly though.
Great song to learn though. 
@TheMadman_tobyjenner When finger picking if playing a G I just fret the G note on the low E string. The problem I have is when I switch back to strumming I sometimes fret the G chord the same way accidentally and boy does it sound bad. I get mad at myself. I don’t do it often but sometimes my brain just decides to trick me.
I have a few fingerpicking songs I’ve recorded other than DITW. If you chose to listen keep in mind I’m still quite green. Guitar 2 years fingerpicking 1. Lady Jane is probably my favorite of these.
These songs are quite a bit easier than DITW. I used DITW to try to improve on fingerpicking. Which is the origin of the song BTW as you may know.
I’m working on Landslide and The Boxer, two fingerpicking classics. Landslide has a twist in the pattern that is giving me a challenge.
Is there really such a club? I’ve kind of exhausted everything fingerpicking from Justin. Looking for more insight.
Good for you, Mike. YOu are making progress on the song, sticking to it, and I note you absorbing the suggestions given. Beyond me to offer more specifics.
But
I don’t think so. Many do so. And my recollection of the conversations is to do what works.
In the long run there may be benefits to being able to finger-pick with a floating hand. It probably frees the hand up to perform certain other techniques, to blend in the odd strum in with the picking.
But that said, if the anchor works and enables you to develop, I don’t see any issue and imagine many here would see it that way.
As for me, when I started finger-picking on the previous Beginner Course I thought it would be beyond me. But I managed, though only with the anchor. Some years later I started to try with a floating hand and found what had been beyond me, was now in learning range.
Making good progress, Mike. I think @LievenDV hit the nail on the head. Just need to work on the flow and slow it down until you’ve chord transitions under your fingers.
Thanks David. I find some patterns, such as the pattern I use for Dust In The Wind, the anchor helps for precision. Other patters I am attempting to learn free floating. Example would be “descending arpeggio” such as the pattern Gordon Lightfoot uses in If You Could Read My Mind.
I guess it’s a constant learning experience. Thanks for sharing, it’s always informative to hear the journey of others.
Good to hear from you, Mike. Glad you are sticking to it.
It sounded pretty good to me. I do agree with the “slow” comments. The speed will come. I don’t do finger patterns, but seems like you got some good info from others above.
Well done Mike, I like that song but my goodness it sure is a challenging one, I keep dipping into it and one day…well who knows. 
Keep having fun.
Thanks much @Thatman I appreciate it. I need to become more confident such that I can play and sing it better.
What I did was every time I’d practice on the guitar I made sure I’d spend some time practicing that infamous intro. Once I felt I had in my head and fingers I began to work on the verses and chorus. Took a long time. Takes patience.
What I can assure you is that even if you don’t think so, or have a bad session, you are improving. It’s fun to see it begin to sound as intended. Best of Lick and thanks again!
Looks like some great progress on this. You got some good advice on previous posts. Keep it up and hope you post this again when you think you have improved on it even more. I’m interested in Fingerstyle songs on here. I’m currently giving it a try on “ Come Back to Me” by Kelli Scarr. It’s in Justin’s Acoustic Songbook. No video though, but it gives tips on how to make it your own.
Pretty song. Nice slow tempo too, good for learning. My first song fingerstyle was Clay Pigeons, as performed by John Prine.
Thanks for the listen and kind words it’s really appreciated.
Good luck with your journey. Patience is the key I think.
Thank you. Much appreciate!
I’ve been working on this song for over a couple years now, and finally can get the pattern consistent and steady. It’s really tricky and took a ton of hours.
One exercise I did was just play the first bar, the initial C chord, over and over again focusing on picking all the notes on the correct strings in steady rhythm. After doing that for a couple minutes, then I would add in the next bar with the next chord, and play those two bars only over and over again.
Tricky song, tricky pattern, lime learning to ride a bike.
I worked on it for a long time as well. I have to remember to keep revisiting it so that I can progress with it.
Thanks for listening. I recently did an another favorite Travis picking song of mine called Clay Pigeons (posted it here somewhere ) It’s challenging but not as challenging as DITW. Maybe challenging in a different way.
Good luck, keep picking away 
Nice picking! You got a nice sound going there. That’s a fun fingerstyle song!
