Jack Elliott - Hootenanny With Jack Elliott (1964)

First posted on February 24, 2016:

This friday will be the opening of this years "Festival Musik und Politik". The festival remembers the history of "hootenanny" in East Berlin and goes back to the year 1966. This is a good opportunity to post an album related to the history of "hootenanny" in the USA.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott is one of folk music's most enduring characters. Since he first came on the scene in the late '50s, Elliott influenced everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. The son of a New York doctor and a onetime traveling companion of Woody Guthrie, Elliott used his self-made cowboy image to bring his love of folk music to one generation after another. Despite the countless miles that Elliott traveled, his nickname is derived from his unique verbiage: an innocent question often led to a mosaic of stories before he got to the answer. According to folk songstress Odetta, it was her mother who gave Elliott the name when she remarked, "Oh, that Jack Elliott, he sure can ramble."                

This album was recorded at a Philadelphia club on May 18, 1962. It has a good cross-section of the cowboy- and country-oriented folk Elliott liked to sing: Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues," the Sons of the Pioneers' "Cool Water," "Boll Weevil," "How Long Blues," "Hobo's Lullaby," "Rock Island Line"; and, of course, a couple of "talking" Woody Guthrie tunes. It's perhaps a little more fun to hear than the average early 1960s Jack Elliott album, because the live ambience and spoken introductions and asides give it a warmer atmosphere than the earnest but plain studio recordings.              

The album "Hootenanny With Jack Elliott" was originally released  as "Jack Elliott At The Second Fret" in 1962


Tracklist:

A1 Mule Skinner Blues
A2 Cool Water
A3 Talking Miner
A4 Boll Weevil
A5 How Long Blues
B1 Salty Dog
B2 Tyin' Knots In The Devil's Tail
B3 Hobo's Lullaby
B4 Talking Sailor
B5 Rock Island Line

Jack Elliott - Hootenanny With Jack Elliott (1964)
(192 kbps, cover art included)