The one I'm thinkin' about Sham is a black singer from the twenties who sings the same type of verses as Bobby's song. Dylan listened to a huge amount of Blues re-issues both in Minnesota and New York and borrowed lots of stuff from them.

John, Dylan certainly did write Maggie's Farm, but he used MANY traditional forms as part of his process. Most of them appear to come from old Folkways albums. The guy's a genius, and he rarely ever credited his sources, but his homage to traditional sources come out strongly in his first fifty or so songs.

Sham, did you ever hear Gid Tanner's "Down on Roberts' Farm"? Seems there were a few like that. I've got the Bentley Brothers' one as well. Great fun eh?

Rick