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Ramblin' Jack Elliott | |
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 Elliott atKnuckleheads Saloon in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elliott Charles Adnopoz |
| Born | (1931-08-01)August 1, 1931 (age 93) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk music |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Website | ramblinjackelliott |
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (bornElliott Charles Adnopoz; August 1, 1931) is an Americanfolk singer, songwriter and story teller.[1]
Elliott was born in 1931 inBrooklyn, New York City, the son of Florence (Rieger) and Abraham Adnopoz, an eminent doctor.[1] His family wasJewish. He attendedMidwood High School in Brooklyn and graduated in 1949. Elliott grew up inspired by therodeos atMadison Square Garden and wanted to be a cowboy.[1] Encouraged instead to follow his father's example and become a surgeon, Elliott rebelled, running away from home at the age of 15 to join Col. Jim Eskew's Rodeo,[2] the only rodeo east of the Mississippi. They traveled throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and New England.
Elliott was with them for only three months before his parents tracked him down and had him sent home, but he had been exposed to his first singing cowboy, Brahmer Rogers, a rodeo clown who played guitar and five-string banjo, sang songs, and recited poetry. Back home, Elliott taught himself guitar and startedbusking for a living. Eventually, he got together withWoody Guthrie and stayed with him as an admirer and student.[1]
Nobody I know—and I mean nobody—has covered more ground and made more friends and sung more songs than the fellow you're about to meet right now. He's got a song and a friend for every mile behind him. Say hello to my good buddy, Ramblin' Jack Elliott.[3]
With banjo playerDerroll Adams, he toured theUnited Kingdom and Europe. By 1960, he had recorded three folk albums for the UKrecord labelTopic Records. In London, he played small clubs and pubs by day andWest Endcabaretnightclubs at night. In 1963 while inLondon, on one or possibly more occasions he recorded 2 songs in front of a live television audience for the UK regional television folk and blues music seriesHullabaloo, presented by the Scottish folksingerRory McEwen; these sessions were released on DVD in 2020.[4] When he returned to the States, Elliott found he had become renowned in American folk music circles.
Woody Guthrie had the greatest influence on Elliott. Guthrie's son,Arlo, said that because of Woody'sillness and early death, Arlo never really got to know him, but learned his father's songs and performing style from Elliott and, according to Arlo, Woody Guthrie once said that Jack Elliot "Sounds more like me than I do".[5] Elliott's guitar and his mastery of Guthrie's material had a significant impact onBob Dylan when he lived in Minneapolis.[6] When he reached New York, Dylan was sometimes referred to as the 'son' of Jack Elliott, because Elliott had a way of introducing Dylan's songs with the words: "Here's a song from my son, Bob Dylan." Dylan rose to prominence as a songwriter; Elliott continued as an interpretative troubadour, bringing old songs to new audiences in his idiosyncratic manner. Elliott also influencedPhil Ochs, played guitar, and sang harmony on Ochs's cover of the song "Joe Hill" from theTape from California album. Elliott also discovered singer-songwriterGuthrie Thomas in a bar in Northern California in 1973, bringing Thomas to Hollywood, where Thomas's music career began.
Elliott appeared in Dylan's 1975–1976Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour,[1] and played "Longheno de Castro" in Dylan's movieRenaldo and Clara accompanied by guitaristArlen Roth. In the movie, he sings the song "South Coast" by Lillian Bos Ross and Sam Eskin, whose lyric the character's name is derived from.[7]
My name is Longheno de Castro
My father was a Spanishgrandee
But I won my wife in a card game
To Hell with those lords o'er the sea
Elliott also appears briefly in the 1983 filmBreathless, starringRichard Gere and directed byJim McBride.
Elliott plays guitar in both traditionalflatpicking andfingerpicking styles, depending on the song, which he matches with his laconic, humorous storytelling, sometimes accompanying himself onharmonica. His singing has a strained, nasal quality, which young Bob Dylan copies. His repertoire includes traditional American music from various genres, includingcountry,blues,bluegrass and folk.
Elliott's nickname comes not from his traveling habits but rather from the countless stories he relates before answering the simplest of questions. Folk singerOdetta claimed that her mother gave him the name, remarking, "Oh, Jack Elliott, yeah, he can sure ramble on!"
His image as a folksy, down-to-earth country boy, despite being a Jewish doctor's son from Brooklyn, and his disdain for other folk singers, were parodied in the fictional documentaryA Mighty Wind in the character of a former member of the New Main Street Singers, Ramblin' Sandy Pitnick, a somewhat geeky-looking white man in a cowboy hat. The film's central band of folksingers, the Folksmen (Christopher Guest,Michael McKean, andHarry Shearer), are said to have scored a hit album calledRamblin'.
In 1995, Elliott's first recording in many years,South Coast, earned him his firstGrammy Award. He was awarded theNational Medal of Arts in 1998.
His long career and strained relationship with his daughter Aiyana was chronicled in her 2000film documentary,The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack.[8]
At the age of 75, he changed labels and releasedI Stand Alone on theANTI- label, with an assortment of guest backup players including members ofWilco,X, and theRed Hot Chili Peppers. The album was produced byIan Brennan.[9] Jack said his intention was to title the albumNot for the Tourists, because it was recorded partially in response to his daughter's request for songs he loved but never played in concert. When asked why he did not, he told her, "These songs are not for the tourists."
In 2012, he was featured on the song "Double Lifetime" on the albumOlder Than My Old Man Now byLoudon Wainwright III.
Elliott appeared with the Ramblin' Jackernacle Choir, adding vocals, yodels, hollers, toBob Weir's 2016solo albumBlue Mountain, on the track "Ki-Yi Bossie".[10]
Additionally,Three Score and Ten, Topic Records' 70th-anniversary boxed set released in 2009, included "Talking Dustbowl Blues" fromWoody Guthrie's Blues as track twelve on the seventh CD.
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