Producer: Joe Henry
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
Release Date: no month , Apri
Producer(s): Anti-
Genre: FOLKApril 11, 2009 ET
A Stranger HereWho better to bring some musical perspective to these troubled times than Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, as he takes on Depression-era country blues classics on "A Stranger Here," his second release on Anti- Records. The former Woody Guthrie protégé is part of a musical thread that links Guthrie to early Bob Dylan. And as Dylan has recently done, Elliott, at age 77, proves the new relevance of traditional blues. "Children stand there screaming, ‘Momma we ain’t got no home,’ " he rasps on the album’s opener, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s "Rising High Water Blues." Elliott brings a seen-it-all authenticity to this repertoire while Joe Henry’s sympathetic production (aided by guest appearances by Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Van Dyke Parks) is pitch perfect, from the spookiness of Son House’s "Grinnin’ in Your Face" to the jaunty "Richland Women Blues" by Mississippi John Hurt. Elliott skillfully reintroduces these songs and, for that, he deserves to be no stranger to a new generation of fans.—Thom Duffy