John Mellencamp: Someday The Rains Will Fall

I heard John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Someday the Rains will Fall” on an episode of NCIS. I hadn’t previously heard this song and Googled while it started playing in the show. I was surprised to learn that it was John Cougar who recorded this song; however, I should have recognized his voice on this song. It is the classic Mellencamp sound.

In 2009, John Mellencamp took his guitar into the historic Gunter Hotel in San Antonio and recorded a live recording of “Someday the Rains will Fall.” Over 70 years previous, a young Robert Johnson took his guitar and recorded live to acetate disc many of his classic blues sides for Brunswick Records at the Gunter. Of those that Johnson recorded in the three day session, the songs included “Dust my Broom,” “Crossroads Blues,” “Terraplane Blues,” “Kind Hearted Woman,” and others.

The author and John Mellencamp in 1986

Mellencamp’s tune came at a low point towards the end of that particular NCIS episode and it just fit the demeanor of the scene – dark, distant, and lonesome.