"Mother of Muses" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the seventh track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. It is a spare and meditative acoustic folk song in which the first person-narrator offers a paean to Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology who gave birth to the nine Muses.
The engraving on the back of Dylan's Nobel medal, which may have inspired "Mother of Muses"
Rough and Rowdy Ways is the thirty-ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 19, 2020, through Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album Tempest, following three releases that covered traditional pop standards. The album was recorded at Sound City Studios from January to early March 2020. The session musicians included all of the then-current members of Dylan's Never Ending Tour band alongside other musicians, such as Blake Mills and Fiona Apple. The album's sound was described by critics as Americana, folk, blues, and rhythm and blues.
Rough and Rowdy Ways inside CD card sleeve