Member Concert: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott with Sarah Lee Guthrie and Robert Carradine

One of the last authentic links to the great folk traditions of this country, with over 40 albums under his belt, two-time GRAMMY-winner Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is considered one of the country’s legendary foundations of folk music. Long before every kid in America wanted to play guitar — before Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin — Ramblin’ Jack had picked it up and was passing it along. From Johnny Cash to Tom Waits, Beck to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones, all pay homage to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

In the tradition of roving troubadours, Jack has carried the seeds and pollens of story and song for decades from one place to another, from one generation to the next. They are timeless songs that outlast whatever current musical fashion strikes today’s fancy. His tone of voice is sharp, focused, and piercing; he plays the guitar effortlessly in a fluid, flat-picking, perfected style. A brilliant entertainer among fellow folk musicians waiting for you to come to them, Jack came out and grabbed you. Bob Dylan called him, “The King of the Folksingers”.

There are no degrees of separation between Jack and the real thing. He is the guy who ran away from his Brooklyn home at age 14 to join the rodeo and learned his guitar from a cowboy. In 1950, he met Woody Guthrie, moved in with the Guthrie family, traveling with Woody to California and Florida. Jack became so enthralled with the life and composer of This Land Is Your Land, The Dust Bowl Ballads, and the wealth of children’s songs that he completely absorbed the inflections and mannerisms, leading Guthrie to remark, “Jack sounds more like me than I do.”

In 1954 with folk singing pals Frank Robinson and Guy Carawan, Jack journeyed south through Appalachia, Nashville, and New Orleans to hear authentic American country music, later making this the basis for his talking song, 912 Greens. In 1955 Jack married and traveled to Europe, bringing his genuine American folk, cowboy, and blues repertoire, along with his guitar virtuosity, inspiring a new generation of budding British rockers, from Mick Jagger to Eric Clapton. When he returned to America in 1961, he met another young folksinger, Bob Dylan, at Woody Guthrie’s bedside and mentored Bob. Jack has continued as an inspiration for every roots-inspired performer since.

Along his journey, Jack learned the blues first-hand from Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, the Reverend Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie Mcghee and Sonny Terry, Jesse Fuller, and Champion Jack Dupree. He has recorded forty albums, wrote one of the first trucking songs, Cup of Coffee-recorded by Johnny Cash-and championed the works of singer-songwriters Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Tim Hardin, and more. Jack became a founding member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and continued the life of the traveling troubadour, influencing Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Tom Russell, The Grateful Dead, and countless others.

Among four GRAMMY nominations, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott won his first GRAMMY Award in 1996 for South Coast in the Best Traditional Folk Album category. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Jack the National Medal of the Arts, proclaiming, “In giving new life to our most valuable musical traditions, Ramblin’ Jack has himself become an American treasure. In 2000, Jack’s daughter, filmmaker Aiyana Elliott produced and directed The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, her take on Jack’s life and their fragile relationship, winning a Special Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival.

2010 to present has been a prolific period for the original troubadour’s career, including his second GRAMMY Award, winning with A Stranger Here in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. Appearances included opening tour performances for beloved artist and friend John Prine, and select dates on the road as a featured guest of Todd Snider. Nora Guthrie honored Ramblin’ Jack in 2015 with a permanent enshrined seat at the Guthrie Museum, and in 2016 he performed at The Ryman in Nashville alongside American musical icons Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, and others in a memorial tribute to honor the life and songs of Guy Clark. Jack has returned for performances at The Newport Folk Festival, Western Folklife’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and regularly headlines throughout the United States beyond his California coastal territory, frequenting the Eastern and Southern states, as well as Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and more. Filmmakers Dee Brown and Bruce Bryant debuted the documentary “A Texas Rambler” in 2019, intimately showcasing earlier periods of the Artists’ life and work.

Martin Scorsese’s film release in 2019, The Rolling Thunder Revue: A Dylan Story, features coverage of Ramblin’ Jack’s place as a vital founding member of the 1975 concert tour. Ramblin’ Jack joined on Matt Rollings’ album Mosaic (2020), covering songs “That Lucky Old Sun” with Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett and “If I Had a Boat” for the renowned Producer and Pianist’s project. In 2021 he was invited to attend and present alongside Anita Thompson (wife of the late Hunter S. Thompson), Presidential Historian and Author Douglas Brinkley, and other American luminaries for an exclusive event hosted by Jim Irsay in honor of Jack Kerouac’s 100th birthday; the author with whom Jack had a friendship. Top media outlets featuring Ramblin’ Jack include CBS Sunday Morning, PBS, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and Uncut (UK).

Though widely esteemed and recognized by many as a great American celebrity figure of Folk music, Jack resists becoming a commercial commodity. Ramblin’ Jack’s life of travels, performances, and recordings is a testament to the America of lore, a giant land of struggle, hard luck, and sometimes even of good fortune. The man Bob Weir calls a “hand-built, self-architectured American icon” takes us to places that spur the romance and passion of life in the tunes and voices of real people.

Turning 90 years young in 2021, Ramblin’ Jack’s ever-curious spirit finds him frequenting the road, seeking people, places, songs, and hand-crafted stories, wreaking of wood and canvas, cowhide, and forged metal. You’ll find him in the sleek lines of long-haul semi-truck, in the rigging of an old sailing ship, in the smell of a fine leather saddle, and performing LIVE into the seventh decade of his career.

About Sarah Lee Guthrie

Sarah Lee Guthrie’s lineage is undeniable. But if you close your eyes and forget that her last name is synonymous with the river-legacy of a widening current of American folk music, you’d still be drawn to the clarity and soul behind her voice. There is a gentle urgency to her interpretations of the songs she sings and the classic music of her heritage. It flows from the continuity of her family, her vital artistic life today and the river of songs that have guided her to where she now stands.

It’s been hinted at since she first stepped on the stages of Wolf Trap and Carnegie Hall as a teenager in 1993 singing Pete Seeger’s “Sailin’ Down My Golden River” for sold-out audiences.  But it was later, when she met her husband, Johnny Irion, grandnephew of Woody Guthrie’s literary kindred spirit, John Steinbeck, that she began to embrace her birthright and her inherent gifts.

“Johnny taught me a few chords on the guitar and that was it… Mom talked me out of going to college and into going out on the road with Dad. I spent the next 6 years playing just about every show with him and my brother Abe, Johnny joined us in 2002 and we opened the shows til our first album came out.”

Over the last two decades on the road and in the studio, she and her husband Johnny Irion have created a signature pop-fused folk-rock sound that is appealing and engaging on series of critically-acclaimed albums Exploration, Folksong, Bright Examples and Wassiac Way.

On 2009’s Go Waggaloo  she created a family album of original songs (and a few with Woody’s lyrics) that won a Golden Medallion from The Parents’ Choice Foundation.  The tour that followed in 2010, The Guthrie Family Rides Again, brought it all together as she found herself surrounded by generations of family and friends all celebrating the music of her family.

“Looking back on the years of shows that I have done, its been the shows with my family that stand out the most, that feel bigger than me, the best part of me, the place I shine the most. I am back on the road with my Dad now and remembering what I was made for, these are the songs that make us who we are and I love to sing them.”

Sarah Lee Guthrie now ventures on a road that leads back to the rich culture of her family running through the warmth of her own bloodlines.  This is rare opportunity to witness the growth of one of America’s finest young folk singers.

About Robert Carradine

Robert Carradine is an American actor who made his first appearances on television Western series such as Bonanza and his brother David’s TV series, Kung Fu. Carradine’s first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys which starred John Wayne and Roscoe Lee Brown. Carradine also portrayed fraternity president Lewis Skolnick in the Revenge of the Nerds series of comedy films. While still in high school, Robert lived with his half-brother, David, in Laurel Canyon, California. Under David’s care he indulged in two of his major interests: race car driving and music. He and David belonged to a musical quartet that performed in small clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. David starred as Woody Guthrie in the 1976 film Bound for Glory.