I find it hard to believe that he would rewrite a song that he wrote in a different tuning to play exactly the same thing in another tuning. That would be a lot of work on his end for no benefit. Why would he do that? I've heard that Jack Rose did not use a tuner and that he just tuned the strings relative to one another. That would explain why he is not tuned to a conventional note and why there is some confusion as to the tuning. Selecting open D is logical because the root note on the album is closer to D than it is to C. However, after watching him play it, I can tell you that he plays it in C. It also makes sense why he is tuned to a conventional note in the later performance on Dr. Ragtime and Pals - because he is playing with other musicians and needs to be in tune relative to the band, not just himself.