From: John Gill
Date: September 25, 2003
Recently I posted an inquiry as to whether anyone knew the source of the "sail on" verse in Leon's version of "Milk Cow Blues". Apparently no one did. So I contacted Leon through Steve Reed at Southland Records. His reply follows. "Thank you very much for your email message for Leon Rausch. I had a nice long visit with Leon this afternoon and also discussed your email message with him. He was not aware of the recording artists that you mentioned in the email message. As far as where the lyrics came from Leon had this to say 'Those lyrics were passed down to me and that's the way I learned them' ". The recordings I mentioned were as follows: 1) Milk Cow Blues - Kokomo Arnold 2) Keep On Sailing - Memphis Minnie 3) I'm Talking about You - Memphis Minnie 4) What's The Matter With The Mill - Minnie I have not heard #3 and am not sure if it is the same song Tommy Duncan sang. But the other three are great renditions and would be of interest to anyone interested in the antecedents of the Wills repertory.