When we last heard from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, he was gathering
\nsome old friends around him to sing songs he loved and to tell
\nstories in a way only this old folksy cowboy could. Now, although
\nmany of the duets are gone, Elliott has more stories to tell — and<\/p>\n
The Long Road<\/i> suggests that we listen to them, if only to
\nenjoy an artform not often heard anymore.<\/p>\n
Elliott might not have the smoothest vocal delivery in the
\nindustry, but he knows how to present the goods in a way that makes
\nit sound like each word is a surprise Christmas gift. While this
\ntechnique doesn’t always work perfectly, there’s a better than
\naverage chance that when Elliott has something to say, his message
\nis going to stick.<\/p>\n
After a surprisingly weak start with “Connection,” the fun
\nbegins when Elliott and labelmate Tom Russell get together on “Cup
\nOf Coffee” — which turns out to be more of a running monologue
\nthan a song, but that’s okay. To hear the interplay between these
\ntwo artists is interesting, and one has to wonder if this song was
\nimprovised on the spot in the studio.<\/p>\n
Other old friends drop in to say “howdy” on
\nThe Long Ride<\/i>. Dave Van Ronk adds his unique vocal style to
\n“St. James Infirmary,” while Dave Alvin (another labelmate of
\nElliott’s) provides vocals on “East Virginia Blues.” Maria Muldaur
\n(remember her from “Midnight At The Oasis”? I
\nhate<\/i> that friggin’ song!) adds a bit of twang to “Picture
\nFrom Life’s Other Side,” and Elliott turns in a version that
\nshines. (I wonder if it means something that this is the second
\nversion of this tune I’ve heard in a matter of days.)<\/p>\n
Regrettably, not everything on
\nThe Long Ride<\/i> hits the mark, though I’d be hard-pressed to
\nsay that it was Elliott’s fault. In fact, I can’t explain why songs
\nlike “Take Me Back And Try One More Time” and “Connection” just
\ndon’t set my ears on fire the way others like “Pony” and “Diamond
\nJoe” do. Still, Elliott outnumbers the weak songs on this disc by
\nabout five to one, so that’s not a bad average.<\/p>\n
There is one thing I am left wondering about. Elliott closes
\nthis disc with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God On Our Side.” (I
\njust finished
\nThe Times They Are A-Changin’<\/i> the other day, so the timing
\non this was amazing.) I do have to wonder why Dylan doesn’t make a
\nguest appearance on this track; after all, it seems to be suggested
\nthat Elliott and Dylan are at least casual acquaintances. I would
\nhave been very interested to have heard what a duet between these
\nartists would have sounded like.<\/p>\n
\nThe Long Ride<\/i> might evoke more memories of Hank Williams
\nthan Garth Brooks, but Elliott does help to keep the storyteller of
\ncountry music past alive. For that alone, we should be grateful.
\nFor another album of highly enjoyable music, we should be even more
\ngrateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6131],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36270","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ramblin-jack-elliott","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36270"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36270"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}