The Essential Ramblin Jack Elliott by Ramblin' Jack Elliott

The Essential Ramblin Jack Elliott

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The Essential Ramblin Jack Elliott

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Audio CD (March 20, 1993)

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Vanguard Records

Reader Reviews
The essential Ramblin' Jack Elliott is to be found on CDs released on labels other than Vanguard. Nonetheless, this is the best on CD from RJE's middle period, the years when he almost became a star but with considerable effort on his own part managed to avoid it (for which we owe him thanks unending) after teetering on a dangerous brink at Warner Brothers in 1967. This package CD includes two vinyl Vanguard albums that have little to do with one another but certainly give us lots of slices of RJE at a very good price. The first dozen songs are studio takes that appeared on the 1964 Vanguard LP "Jack Elliott," also repeated on the mildly interesting Vanguard CD "The Vanguard Years." The various tracks include accompaniment by Bob Dylan on guitar and mouth harp, aliasing as Tedham Porterhouse, and Erik Darling on banjo ("Will the Circle Be Unbroken"), Ian & Sylvia, Eric Weissberg, John Herald and Monte Dunn ("Guabi Guabi"), John Hammond on mouth harp ("Roll On Buddy") and bassist Bill Lee on several numbers. No, don't look for this or any other information in Vanguard's liner notes. There aren't any liner notes. These studio takes - as one might expect with such helpers on board - made for the liveliest of all RJE's studio sessions up to that time. However, one only gets 100% of Ramblin' Jack when he's playing to an audience, and that's what he does on this CD's last 11 tracks, all taken from his superlative April 30,1965 concert at New York City's Town Hall. When RJE begins Track No. 13, Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues" in concert, the atmosphere begins to glow. In a sense, all 11 live pieces are highlights. If so, the first among equals are Leadbelly's "Blind Lemon Jefferson," Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" and Scottish comedian Will Ffyfe's "I Belong to Glasgow," which is one of several high points in the RJE discography, far better than the 1961 studio version for Prestige International, now on the Fantasy CD "Ramblin' Jack Elliott." If you're a Ramblin' Jack fan, you'd be downright foolish to avoid acquiring this CD.

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