Expecting Rain

A friend of mine sent me a link to this video which focuses on folk music and Alan Lomax's work in particular. The guests are Don Fleming, Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris. Starting at 3:05 they talk about the origin of Dylan's song "Masters of War" which was inspired by Jean Ritchie's folk tune "Nottamun Town". Furthermore, they also play a short excerpt of "Masters of War" which Dylan had performed for Alan Lomax three months before he went to the studio to record it.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... lou-harris

"Unavailable video" in UK

Interesting how they said it was the folk process at work but neglected to mention that Dylan had to give Jean Ritchie a big pile of money.

According to wikipedia: With many of his early songs [as we know ], Dylan adapted or "borrowed" melodies from traditional songs. In the case of "Nottamun Town" [which is certainly a traditional English folk song], however, the arrangement was by veteran folksinger Jean Ritchie. Unknown to Dylan, the song had been in Ritchie's family for generations, and she wanted a writing credit for her arrangement. In a legal settlement, Dylan's lawyers paid Ritchie $5,000 against any further claims.

Ritchie's claim may or may not have had legal legs, but 5 grand to keep her sweet was probably worth paying...

Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello were on the Colbert Report last night and they played a short clip of Masters of War on a reel to reel. I hadn't previously heard that version of it, but they were discussing Lomax as well. They played a different old blues song prior to that. Should be re-airing today at 4:30 eastern time in America, you folks should check it.

You should be able to watch it now, supermabel, it's on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/38205705

^ Thanks, Giada!