>> jon: that's our show. join us all week at is 11. on monday our guest will be grover norquist. i don't know what we'll talk about. maybe taxes, i don't know. we'll see. her is your moment of zen. >> taco bell is debutting a dorito taco made with a dorito nacho cheese taco shell. >> the cheese shell compliments the tacoes ingredients very well. >> i just had my first bite and am enjoying it.

captioning sponsored by comedy central ( theme song playing ) ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: thank you so much. welcome to the show, everybody. welcome to the report. >> stephen, stephen, stephen! stephen, stephen, stephen! >> that's too much. (cheers and applause) thank you for joining us, everybody.

folks, i don't have to tell you, like all americans, i'm concerned about the rising price of gas. last weekend i had to cancel my annual lawn fire where i write out my springtime resolutions in gasoline on my lawn. too bad this area's resolution was going to be to conserve more gas. (laughter) well, whenever i need advice on the oil market i turn to fox news, home of conservative rising star and fox news contributor eric bolling. he's the lead fox news 5:00 news called five, which is like the view for people who believe the view's panelists are too well informed. now the last few day, folk, bolling has been pushing a solution to the gas crisis all over fox news. but he won't tell us what it is. >> as a guy who traded oil & gas for years, i've got some ideas for the president. >> there's one, there is a

secret that i've only offered to the obama administration. which would be. >> can't tell you. >> i put it in an envelope and i said this will bring gasoline down a dollar. here's the answer. this will get gasoline prices down, i guarantee it, gasoline prices come down by a dollar with this. >> stephen: that's right. a secret plan in a manila envelope to lower the price of a gallon of gas by $1. i means what's he got in there. could it be a dollar? come on, bolling, i have to know was's in there. if only there was some way to contact bolling directly and find out. >> here it, is, president obama, last week, i offered you, make the phone call. reach out and touch me, sir, here it is, there is my phone number where is t there it is. >> is that your real number. >> only president obama call now. i don't want anyone else to call. >> i hope he calls. i'm not kidding. >> stephen: what a brilliant plan to get a phone call from the president.

you know o i want obama to call me too. look, sir, president obama, i've got a plan tow eliminate the debt. and i've got a plan to invade and defeat iran in three days. and i've got-- i've got-- these are the results of some blood tests. and this is some poetry from college. and this, this, this is my plan to organize my manila envelopes. so call me, mr. president. and all this could be yours. but in the meantime i have to know what bolling's plan is. but he said only the president could call. now of course he didn't specify president of what. i happen to be president of a super pac as well as-- (cheers and applause) thank you. thank you. and i am also the president in exile of the justin beiber believe fan club. i will have my revenge,

shelly, you backstabbing sea viper. you know, screw it, bolling's plan sounds too important. i am calling. okay, here we go. here we go. all right, all right, all right. this is fun. >> your call is being answered by ought dix. >> gas line. >> is not available to leave a message wait for the tone. otherwise for assistance press zero now. record at the tone. >> hello, eric bolling, its barack obama calling. i'm just here in the oval office stroking my pet white person. thinking of ways to destroy america with contraception.

what if we put the lady liberty on the pill. yes, yes, oh, eric bolling, if you only knew the things that i was planning to do with the oil market. listen, eric, i really want these plans you have. i want you to-- i want you to stitch them on to american flag and then burn it. and then i will inhale the vapors and know what your plan is. >> seriously, call me. all right, bye. (cheers and applause) it is barack obama so i had to say something mean. well, eric bolling, if you still want the president's attention i happen to have his direct phone number, in this manila envelope. all you have to do to get it

is reach out and touch me, okay. just call me at this number, eric. remember, only eric bolling should use this number. it's my direct line and i pick it up every time someone calls. of course there is a silly little game i play where i pretend it's not my number but don't give up. it's just to throw the noneric bollings off the scent. now nation, as you know i have a close personal relationship with my main man herman cain. i love him too. he's my brother from another mother. my sister from another mister, my uncle chuck-year from another-- oh chucky ducky! (applause) >> stephen: now folks, who can forget when we raised cain together at our rock me like a herman cain rally in

south carolina. just like an actual hurricane that left everyone in tears and wondering what the hell happened. i've always expected cain from his 999 tax plan to his vision of quoting pocke monday to letting his campaign be run but its savvyist of highway drifters. cain dropped out of the race but i'm proud to report is he still 100% committed to fixing america ca cain's connection pack. now they just dropped their first ad, folks. spoiler alert t is a he hermasterpiece. jim? >> this is the economy. this is 9 economy on stimulus. any questions? (laughter) any questions!

>> stephen: nope. no questions here. completely understood it unfortunately, other people did have questions like did herman cain commit goldfish murder? >> no he did not, ladies and gentlemen. as his came pain postage on the tube, the goldfish is fine but our economy isn't. see t wasn't killed t was merely tortured. and not nearly astor turdz as the metaphor in the ad. well, folk, the reviews are in and people are calling herman cain the new andy warhol and not just because his 15 minutes may be up. jim? >> pretty brutal video, if you look at it. >> well, i think it's very creative. >> it's a little bit film noir with a sprinkle of post apocalypse, it's a grim message indeed that even comes complete with with the

foreboding caw of a raven. it is safe to say that he and his team have create a new video genre, brenda, the political avant-garde. >> stephen: yes, a vand guard cain is pushing the boundaries of what can be called a political ad. just as he once pushed the boundaries of what can be called pizza. and cain knows, qain knows the a vand guard is about confronting preconceived bourge what necessary notions of political messaging. in case the stimulus which no one has really talked about for a year happened. the goldfish is a metaphor for our economy caught in the grip of a capricious and cruel universe represented by a little girl, a ferocious fragility in the bar ren landscape of decay toying with life's duality as both critic and criminal, and i got all of that from her bangs. finally-- (applause) finally, in a thought-free and day-- denawment of cain

on a grassy ledge overlooking the 18th hole of madness, of course that is just one interpretation. another could be that his campaign manager has switched what he is smoking. either way, folks, i was so inspired by cain's art attack or art-tacck adds that i chugged a bottle of robitussin, punched myself in the tiferp el with a porcelain cow creamer and made an avant-garde ad of my own about all the things we forgot we used to be mad about. jim? >> let's shatter some paradigm. >> this is the economy. this is the economy on regulations. this is contraception. this is the auto bailout. this is gay marriage.

banjos, this is a mexican border. socialism, this is grandma, in a dystopian future. any questions! >> stephen: any questions! (cheers and applause) balls in your court, herman kane, and i want to assure my viewers that in cats were harmed in the decapitation of that actor. we'll be right back.

>> stephen: welcome back, everybody, thank you so much. my guests tonight are here to talk about the folk-music legacy of alan lomax. not to be confused with the tree-saving legacy of alan lorax. please welcome don fleming, emmylou harris and elvis

costello. (cheers and applause) wow. thank you, thank you. nice to meet you. emmylou, thank you so much for coming on. elvis, always a pleasure. okay. now don, let's educate the people here for just a moment. >> all right. >> stephen: we know these guys, okay, we have got a rock 'n' roll hall of famer, a country music hall of famer, are you now on "the colbert report" hall of fame. >> thank you. >> stephen: as all my guests are. >> thank you very much. i'll take. >> stephen: okay, but you are also the executive director of the association for cultural equity and the director of the alan lomax archives. >> yes. >> stephen: who is alan lomax, why should i care? >> well, alan was a folklorist and muse cole gist and he spent his whole life, a good chunk of the 20th century collecting traditional music and dance from around the world. and he spent his time, you know, going to the rural areas where he could find music that had been lost otherwise. >> stephen: what is, you know, i hear the term a lot.

what is folk-music. what does it mean to you? i think of folk-music as poor people music, right? it's like, it's like the mexican food of music. it's for poor people, right? >> well, it's music that doesn't make much money. that's why they used to have a category in the grammys, you know, contemporary folk and it meant good records that don't sell. >> stephen: okay so how many songs did he collect is this. >> he collected tens of thousands of songs. we have 17,000 tracks that we just put up on our web site that people can stream to listen to everything. >> stephen: what does it cost. >> it doesn't cost anything. >> stephen: you are kaeping up the tradition of folk artists not making any money, for a new generation. >> that's true is. >> stephen: i understand that this influenced a whole generation of muss igs-- musicians, the recordings that he made. elvis were you influenced by anything that lomax recorded? >> well, i didn't know the songs directly from lomax. because i grew up in england.

and that's where those old dusty songs came from and i actually had to hear the way they were done by american artists before i got interested in them. because some of them were just, they were songs sung by men in cable nit sweaters about whale fishing and things like that that i couldn't relate to. >> stephen: young people loved whaling songs. how but, you have record any of the songs that lomax recorded on his real to real like this. >> well, not on a machine like that. but yes, i really learned music, i learned to play guitar by listening to recordings that were being played on the radio by a guy named-- wamu radio. that's where i first heard some of these old, people like gene richie and some of the old folk blues. >> stephen: now there is a gee richie story having to do with dylan. >> right. >> stephen: she had a song called notaman town. >> stephen: can we hear that. >> you can. this is alan's deck, he used

this actual tape deck in the caribbean in 18962. and what we have is a sample of jean rich-year recording this song for alan in 1949. and this is her version of nottinghamtown. ♪ in nottinghamtown ♪ not a soul would look up ♪ not a soul would look down ♪ ♪ not a soul would look up ♪ not a soul would like down ♪ ♪ please is show me a way ♪ to nottinghamtown. >> stephen: and eventually the beat dropped, i assume. >> so now what did-- now dylan did something with that. what happened with that. >> here's what happened. bob heard it and said well this is a catchy song. and it's a traditional song. i think i will make a song of it myself. >> stephen: so what did he make. >> he made this tsang called masters of war. >> stephen: let's hear it. >> he came back two months

later and did this for alan, recorded it for alan about three months before he went in the studio and did it. >> masters of war ♪ ♪ if they build a big gun ♪ if they build the best planes ♪ ♪ if you build the big bomb ♪ ♪ it would hide behind calls ♪ ♪ it would hide behind-- ♪ i just want to you know i can see through your man ♪ ♪. >> stephen: okay. so he is a thief. >> well, no, it's really the way people wrote songs for hundreds of areas. would you hear the song, that appealed to you. would take the melody, maybe some of the words and adapt it would you adapt it into your own song. >> stephen: have you guys ever done it? >> adapted a song. >> do we have to admit this

here on television. >> stephen: yeah, you do, are you actually sworn in. emmylou in particular, they did a song for o brother where art thou. >> i actually thought that t bone person et and gillian had written this song and it wasn't until we were talking about doing the show that i found out that it was actually from 19 --. >> is a recording alan did there 1959 and mississippi, a woman named sydney carter and alan recorded her. and t bone heard the song and -- >> want to hear a bit. >> stephen: is this what it originally was like. >> the original was just one woman singing it, what they did was adapt it they wrote new lyrics and they also did it as a har machine. >> three part har machine. >> we're going to try something here. ♪ what a sleepy little baby ♪ ♪ going to sleep little baby ♪

♪ your mamma gone away ♪ and your daddy going to stay ♪ ♪ leave nobody but the baby ♪ ♪ (cheers and applause) >> stephen: when we come back we're going to i do a classic american folk song with elvis costello, emmylou

>> welcome back, everybody,

ladies and gentlemen, i'm proud to present emmylou harris, elvis costello and don fleming. (cheers and applause) ♪ down the road here from me ♪ ♪ where you lay down a dollar or two ♪ ♪ you go around the bend ♪ when you come back again ♪net there's a jugful of mountain dew ♪ ♪ well they call it that old mountain dew ♪ ♪ been there with you ♪ i look all my money ♪ to fill up my jug ♪ with that good old mountain dew ♪ ♪ my old aunt june ♪ bought some new perfume ♪ and it had such a sweet smelling ♪ ♪ but to her surprise ♪ when she had analyzed

♪ it was nothing but good old mountain dew ♪ ♪ well, they called that old mountain dew ♪ ♪ all my money ♪ if you fill up my cup ♪ with that good old mountain dew ♪ ♪ well my cousin bill ♪ got aon the hill ♪ and he runs up a gallon or two ♪ ♪ the bugs fill the sky ♪ get so drunk they can't fly ♪ ♪ from smelling that old mountain dew ♪ ♪ they call it that old mountain dew ♪ ♪ ♪ hush all my money ♪ you fill up my jug ♪ in that good old mountain dew ♪ ♪ i lush up my money ♪ to fill up my jug ♪ with that good old

mountain dew ♪ ♪ (cheers and applause) >> stephen: we'll be right back. what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need... ...we can turn this weekend into a fresh floor... ...or an updated bathroom... ...or a brand-new look. so let's hit those orange aisles, and make today the day, we make a big difference - no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. lay down a better floor for less. new pergo xp laminate, starts at $2.74 per square foot.