Artist: Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Record Review from web archive April 7, 2009
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
Beginning with his superb 1995 album South Coast, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s latter-latter-day career has been served well by a steady stream of recording sessions that emphasize his epic personality, his ragged-but-right guitar playing, and his voice – a prickly, irrepressible instrument that can tell a story in a single consonant or vowel. Now, at 77, [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #64 July-Aug 2006
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – I Stand Alone
Those who have known Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s work over these past 50-odd years won’t be surprised by what he offers on I Stand Alone. A few guests show up, but their contributions are minimal: Lucinda Williams moans along on “Careless Darling”, just a step behind Jack on the microphone, and when they end, it’s without [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #24 Nov-Dec 1999
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – The Long Ride
As he’ll tell you at the drop of a hat, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott was friends with Woody Guthrie, who continues to strongly influence his career. On The Long Ride, Elliott introduces the traditional number “Picture From Life’s Other Side” with an anecdote about riding around in a Plymouth with Woody and Cisco Houston. A highlight [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #22 July-Aug 1999
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott / Bill Morrissey – The Bottom Line (New York City, NY)
Though you’ll probably never see them on VH1, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bill Morrissey are still an interesting pair of storytellers. On one hand is Morrissey, who weaves his tales in songs that burst with exquisite detail, like well-crafted short stories. On the other hand is Elliott, whose between-song asides frequently last longer than the [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #14 March-April 1998
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – The Rambler
To ask Ramblin’ Jack Elliott a question is to tug at a snag in a sweater, only to see the yarn unfurl of its own volition, dropping in aimless loops, curling and snaking itself into a variegated fable. Every answer is a folk tale. Conversation is an exercise in free association, switchbacks, good-humored evasion, meanders, [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #12 Nov-Dec 1997
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Kerouac’s Last Dream
After a passel of false starts — “unadorned, necessary”; “leathery but supple”; “metaphorical yaddety, and so on” — I took my mouse, swept up all the reviewer-speak I’d generated about this album, and dumped it all. Simpler talk will suffice. In one sense, there is nothing new here. Kerouac’s Last Dream is a reissue (an [...]
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