Ramblin' Jack Elliott's Pickin' and Grinning

Just listened to Ramblin' Jacks Vanguard years. This is folk music at its best. Jack is quite deft on his guitar picking. He uses the thumb to control the bass notes. I had thought that he would do more picking the harmony out with his thumb, but he doesn't. He's 'adoin' a plenty to get tons of thumb pickin' bass runs on virtually every song. There is no way you could call his style Country and even his Blues couldn't be defined as Blues, Blues, but fast, folk music style blues.

The man can yoddle. I think I could learn to do that, if I would. What I like about the CD and its music is that it is simple. On a few songs you can hear a banjo, but basically, it is just Jack singing and playing.

The liner notes are excellent, but they are pretty much duplicated on the Internet if you search hard enough. The Animals standard, "House of the Rising Son," is nothing close to how Jack plays it. Jack uses one minor chord and actually creates a different tune to the song, with which the Animals sang. With real Blues made pop, you gotta' go with the Animals' version. But with simple folk music, you gotta hang on to Jack's interpretation.

His versatility on the guitar is evident. Jack plays in open chords only. That means that he seldom moves up the frets to pick out the lead. It is all picking from the open chords, which uses the fret bridge, extensively. His voice goes from loud to soft, and he doesn't mind getting up high and singing loud.

All the songs on the CD stand out. "Don't Think Twice; It's All Right," sounds like the commercial tune and approach. He adds many verses to "There's Too Many Girls Around," and this cut comes from a live performance. The only one, though.

There is a lot to be said about just one guy on the stage and his guitar, and that is Jack Elliott at his best.

I went to his homepage, and he's got a new album/CD coming out and gives us a chance to order it in advance. If you want to hear what a single singer and his guitar should sound like, Jack is the man. I like the CD. There is one song on there that could be called, "Folk Gospel," but other than that, we've got basic folk.

The fun thing to do would be, go to the list of songs on my last post, and run each one of them through a search engine, and see what you get.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott: Vanguard Years

As you can tell, I just got my Jack Elliott CD. You can see his picture on the CD on the other post. This is the way his CD looks. Too many songs to write them on the CD its self. As I write this, I haven't listened to it. At the bottom of this, I will give you my review. There are 25 songs on it, so it is a "worth-it" CD. He covers some songs that I already have covers on from different artists.

1) Roving Gambler
2) Will the Circle Be Unbroken (In my Repertoire -IMR)
3) Diamond Joe
4) Gaubi Gaubi
5)Sowing on the Mountain
6) Roll On Buddy
7) 1913 Massacre
8) House of the Rising Sun (IMR)
9) Shade Of The Old Apple Tree
10) Black Snake Moan
11) Portland Town
12) More Pretty Girls (IMR)
13) Danville Girl
14) John Hardy
15) Dark As A Dungeon (Merle Travis)
16) Hard Ain't It Hard
17) Don't Think Twice; It's All Right
18) I Got A Woman
19) Railroad Bill (Jimmy Rodgers, Merle Haggard)
20) I Never Will Marry
21) At My Window
22) Blue Eyed Elaine
23) Wildwood Flower (IMR)
24) Ranger's Command
25) Willie Moore.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Well, this post will not be so easy on you, because I want you to meet Ramblin' Jack. By the way, I have my song written that I hope to enter in the Woody Guthrie Festival. They don't have that festival in Texas, Bro. Cec, but I thought I would remind you anyway. I've gotten the song, "Playin' Custer Down," ruggedly memorized at this point. A singer wants to memorize it enough, such that when performing it, we don't have to worry about the words and enjoy the opportunity.

Believe me, there was a time that I was scared to death of performing, but those days went bye-bye, back in Kansas, where two of my grown children were born - Jayhawkers. Five children, 2 Jayhawkers and 3 Sooners. The neat thing, is that last Wednesday, my oldest, Darrin and his wife Jill, presented us with a bran new grandbaby boy, named Reed Michael Hill. Born on June 14th, Jill gets an A+ for her performance. Breathed through the whole thing without a whimper or drugs. Reed was 19 inches long, and weighed 8lbs 2 oz. Haven't seen Marcella in this house for almost a week. Wonder why?

I've got all these Woody Guthrie CDs. Most of them are pretty rugged, but that is how Woody was. His mother, was probably a Manic Depressive, which sent her to the mental hospital for the rest of her older years. I worked my way through college by working at a mental hospital. One of the pluses of working at the hospital was being able to buy a lunch card, and I could drive out there and eat.


I knew several workers who didn't last long as mental health aides, because the mental patients reminded them, too much, of themselves. But mental patients actually represent a part of ourselves. There's only a few clicks of this 3400 Powerbook, from normalcy to mental illness. A guitar friend of mine, woke up on his wife's mother's birthday, to find his lovely wife in the throes of severe depression. Lythium didn't work.

My friend, Dean, hung in there, through all the meds and even "electric shock," which, by the way, helped more than the drugs. After all, our brain is functioning through electric synapses. Hooked up to New York City, your brain could power the all of that city. An electrical reboot can often help. The reboot can be done with a drug or just a jolt of electricity. Remember, that electricity can actually save a heart-attack victim's life.

I'll be the first to admit to making mistakes. On one of my rambling essays, I mentioned Jack Scott. I apologize. Jack Scott is a musical image within himself, but he is not the Jack that I was referring to. Now, I'm not going to throw you the "life preserver" on this one; you will have to do this yourself. But this topic is Oklahoma. The center place. The US recognized center of "Folk/Protest" Music, and Cowboy Music.



How is that possible? Well, ...... Woody Guthrie is the man of the season, for protest music and folk music. Bob Dylan claims to be his son, but that's not true. Dylon sucked up what he could from Woody, and then branched out. So how is Oklahoma the center for Cowboy Music? Not possible. Texas should be. NOT! The Cowboy Hall of Fame rests itself in the center of Oklahoma. Each year they have a Cowboy Poetry Festival. Also, in Tulsa, we have the world famous Gilcrease Museum. Ask Mr. Cecil about that.

Cowboy poetry is big in the state and the nation, though, few real cowboys have time to do any writing. They are busy keeping their cows alive and tending to them. The real cowboys may or may not wear Cowboy Boots, but my guess is they don't. They wear working boots with steel toes in them. Why? Who wants to ruin a perfectly good pair of $500 boots by wearing them while helping birth a calf or by getting all manured up when giving cattle their Veterinarian shots, to keep them from getting, ground called, "anthrax," or some other disease. Have you ever had a cow step on your foot or toes?

But, back to the Jack to whom I refer. None other than "Ramblin' Jack Elliott." There is quite a story here, therefore, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but I am going to ask you to be the "boots in cyberspace" and find out all you can about this fellow. He changed music in the US and even in Europe. He was also awarded as a "National Treasure" by President Clinton. What do you think that is?

You can find Jack's story on the Internet, so here is the treasure hunt, and that is why, I didn't tag this on one of the other posts. I gave this one a title by itself for you. So, ... here's your job, and I hope all of you add your comments.

You could start by visiting itunes and counting the number entries you get with his name. Total number tabulated.

Take a guess on how many songs he has memorized. I have about 100. I am not Ramblin' Jack by a long stretch.

What's Jack's real name? What is his nationality?

What did his dad do? When did he realize his path in life?

What year did he get the "National Treasure Award?"

How many states in the US, did he cover?

Where do you think he sang in Europe, if he did?

Was Jack a real cowboy or not? Explain please.

How did Woody Guthrie fit into his life?

How about Bob Dylan? How were they, oddly, somewhat related?

How is Jack different, musically to Bob?

Can you identify Jack with a certain musical "genre?" Why or why not?

See how many pictures of him can you find? Hint (Google images)

Describe what kind of setting Jack loved to do best.

What environment did he not like?

Do you think he was a good dad? Why or why not?

So, ... what do you think? Can you make a real choice in the area of your life-goal? What is it? Could you be another "Ramblin' Jack Elliott?" He's very much still alive. His daughter has done a DVD Documentary on him. It would be worth watching.