For someone with his roots solidly steeped in the old style of
\ncountry music, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott sure has a wide variety of
\nfriends.<\/p>\n
More of a combination folkie-cowboy rather than a pop-radio
\nfriendly country musician much like Hank Williams, Sr., Elliott
\ncalls upon some of the people he has helped influence over the
\nyears to compile
\nFriends Of Mine<\/i>, his latest disc. And while most of the
\ngeneral public might pass by this disc, those that do take the
\nchance with it will be mildly surprised with the gentle ballads
\nthat compromise its 12 songs.<\/p>\n
Elliott’s vocals have been weathered by life on the road, but
\nthey never fail to deliver their message, nor do they distract the
\nlistener. Although it sometimes is questionable why Elliott would
\ngo after higher ranges, he somehow makes it work, as evidenced by
\nhis duet with protest-folk legend Arlo Guthrie on “Riding Down The
\nCanyon”.<\/p>\n
And you have to admit that pairing Elliott with alternative
\ngodfather Tom Waits was a move of pure genius – their rendition of
\n“Louise” makes me want to go check out more of Waits’s work.
\nLikewise, the mandolin work of Peter Rowan (though I admit I can’t
\ntell which vocals are his) is the perfect foil for Elliott’s
\ntongue-in-cheek recitation of “Me And Billy The Kid,” a track I
\nkept going back to.<\/p>\n
But overall, the duets Elliott takes part in have an air of
\ncomfortable laziness about them – it just sounds like old friends
\ngetting together and singing a song or two. The two numbers with
\nJerry Jeff Walker are wonderful, while the only “trio” on the album
\n(Elliott with Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffith on “Rex’s Blues”)
\nis a natural pairing that should be further explored. Even the duet
\nwith John Prine is as right as peanut butter and chocolate – who
\nelse would be better suited to sing “Walls Of Red Wing,” besides
\nmaybe Merle Haggard?<\/p>\n
There are a few links that are – well, they’re not
\nweak<\/i>, but they’re not as strong as the others. The pairing
\nwith Guy Clark on “Dark As A Dungeon” does nothing for me, and I
\nhave to admit I was disappointed to hear Bob Weir relegated to
\nbackup singing on a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Friend Of The
\nDevil”. (I also missed hearing David Grisman’s mandolin, though Roy
\nRogers comes through with some work on the steel guitar.)<\/p>\n
The two songs on
\nFriends Of Mine<\/i> which feature Elliott as a solo artist are
\nhit-or-miss. The cover of “Reason To Believe” is quite enjoyable,
\nwhile the spoken-word tribute to Bob Dylan, “Bleeker Street Blues,”
\njust doesn’t evoke anything in me. (Elliott wrote this song while
\nDylan was hospitalized with heart problems last year.)<\/p>\n
In one sense, it’s more difficult to pigeonhold
\nFriends Of Mine<\/i> as “just country” or “just folk”… or just
\nanything<\/i>, for that matter. Elliott is able to take the best
\nof both worlds and create a music that sounds as native to the West
\nas it would in New York City.<\/p>\n
\nFriends Of Mine<\/i> shows the world that not only can country
\nand folk merge, but even elements of rock can fit in quite well
\nwith this world. Here’s hoping people are willing to give this
\ntroubador a chance to work his magic on their eardrums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6131],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38742","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\/38742","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=38742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38742"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38742"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}