By Chris Samson
An apprentice to Woody Guthrie in the '50s, a mentor to Bob Dylan in the '60s and the poet "lariat" of American folk music in the '90s, the loquacious Ramblin' Jack Elliott has an easy-going singing style and laid-back delivery that have earned him the friendship of fellow musicans and the admiration of folk fans around the globe.
Those friendships are evident on his new album, "Friends of Mine," which features duets with such musicians as Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, Bob Weir and Tom Waits. And the admiration was apparent during a recent two-hour CD-signing appearance at the Music Coop, when a steady stream of old friends and longtime fans stopped by the downtown Petaluma music store to meet the veteran folksinger.
Some brought old album covers or photos for him to sign. Others reminisced about a concert where they had seen him, told him their favorite song or relived a shared experience many years ago. "It was a lot of fun," Elliott said afterward. "I enjoyed it."
Now living in the West Marin coastal town of Marshall, the 66-year-old Elliott has been an important figure in American folk music for more than 40 years. But mainstream exposure and financial prosperity have eluded him.
Until the release of "South Coast" in 1995, which won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album, Elliott hadn't recorded a studio album in 26 years. Why the long drought, or he put it, "vacation from recording"? "For one thing, it's hard work," Elliott said. "Another thing is, I never made any money from them. They never sold -- or at least that's what the record companies told me."
The new album exudes a feeling of warmth and friendship, with Elliott singing favorite songs with musicians who obviously have a genuine affection for and appreciation of the man. "Friends of Mine," produced by Novato slide guitarist Roy Rogers, took 17 months to complete.
Plans are already in the works for "Friends of Mine, Volume 2." "People like Willie (Nelson) and Kris (Kristofferson) had very busy schedules and weren't able to record with me on this album," Elliott said.
"Bob Dylan once complained to me, saying that I have too many friends," he said. "I probably have as many friends as Bob has dollars." Elliott laments that he has been unable to get in contact with his old friend in several years.
"It's sad not to be able to hang out with Bob in the fun way we used to. Unfortunately, Bob finds it necessary to be surrounded by a whole army of security men who don't even know who I am. It would be easier to see the pope."
When Dylan was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart ailment last year, Elliott was inspired to write one of his few original songs, a spoken-word piece with guitar accompaniment titled "Bleeker Street Blues." It's a kind of open letter to Dylan, reminiscing about the old days and wishing him well. "This is the only way I could get through to him," Elliott says. "I hope he hears it and I hope he likes it."
Waits, the gravelly-voiced singer-songwriter-actor and Sonoma County resident, wrote "Louise" especially for Elliott's album. "I've known Tom for over 20 years. There's a great feeling of mutual admiration between us. He sent me a letter with a tape of that song. I didn't know how our voices would sound together, but we got a good take."
The Grateful Dead's Weir joins Elliott for a leisurely version of "Friend of the Devil." Jerry Jeff Walker joins Elliott for two songs, "Hard Travelin'" and "He was a Friend of Mine." Arlo Guthrie, Woody's son, teams up with Elliott for Gene Autry's "Riding Down the Canyon."
With his ever-present Stetson hat, neckerchief and gentle drawl, one would expect Elliott was a product of a rural western upbringing. But he was born in New York City, the son of a doctor, and ran away at 15 to join the rodeo, learning his first guitar chords and cowboy songs along the way.
Around 1951, Elliott heard a Woody Guthrie record for the first time, and inspired by what he'd heard, the budding 20-year-old folksinger looked up Guthrie. "I wound up living with Woody for two years and traveling with him for two years," Elliott said. He learned many of Guthrie's songs and musical techniques along the way.
When Guthrie became ill in 1954 with a debilitating disease that would eventually take his life, Elliott continuing traveling and singing on his own. From 1955 to 1961 he toured Europe, where he found a new audience appreciative of American folk music.
"It was great, a real adventure," he recalled. "We were doing it on a shoestring and traveling by motorscooter. But things have changed today. Nothing's the same anymore."
Elliott recorded his first album in England in 1956, "Woody Guthrie's Blues," the first of half a dozen albums he recorded for Topic Records. He continued criss-crossing Europe, "gradually turning it into a professional thing and building up quite a lot of fans there."
When he returned to the States in 1961, Elliott found the folk music scene in full bloom and he was being acclaimed as one of its major figures. A story in Newsweek magazine called him "one of the few authentic voices" in folk music.
"The day I returned, I went to visit Woody in the hospital and I bumped into Bob (Dylan)," Elliott said. Seems he'd been visiting Woody for 10 months. The two became friends and were at the center of the folk music boom of the early 1960s, playing clubs in New York's Greenwich Village. Like Elliott had done a decade earlier with Guthrie, the young Dylan absorbed much of Elliott's style. Elliott recalls a sign at Gerde's Folk City one night that read, "Now appearing, Bob Dylan, son of Jack Elliott."
Elliott moved to California in 1965 and he's been on the road ever since, preferring to travel to gigs in smaller venues in his motorhome. "I don't like big cities," he said. "And I get very tired being on the road when I'm going by airplane."
Elliott will set his preferences aside and probably breathe a heavy sigh as he prepares to embark next week on a 16-day, 12-city tour with three other musicians on Oakland's Hightone Records label. Elliott, Dave Alvin, Tom Russell and Chris Smither will stop at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco next Thursday in the only Bay Area date on what is being billed as the Monsters of Folk tour.
(Published April 3, 1998)
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