Ramblin’ Jack Elliot divided his concert time at the Highline Ballroom into half folk music and half folk story. Elliott is in his 70’s now, and has many amusing stories to tell, despite his “loosing five memory cells out the back door a day.” Before every song, Elliott would tell little anecdotes, generally pertaining to either the preceding or upcoming song, but sometimes complete non sequiturs. These stories were quite entertaining though, and once one embraces Ramblin’ Jack proving his nickname, the stories are a welcome addition to the night.

Elliott’s set was comprised of more covers than original material, but that is acceptable in the folk music genre where songs are frequently passed from artist to artist. Elliott had a personal connection with most of the artist who’s songs he covered, and of course he would tell a story about that friendship before hand. For example, Elliott told how he played “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan years ago with Dylan in the audience, and Dylan stood of and said “I relinquish it to you, Jack.” Elliott thought that was cool because he had “never had anything relinquished” to him before.

As for the musical content of the night, Elliott’s singing was gravelly and growling, but perfect for the folk/blues music that he was playing. Elliott’s guitar playing was good too, again fitting his genre very nicely. The biggest pitfall for Ramblin’ Jack was that he started into “The Cuckoo,” forgot the words in the middle, but ended it so gracefully that it was hard to be sure that he didn’t just want to play an abbreviated version. Elliot’s influence on other artists is more significant than his own playing, but this concert could never be replicated in a studio, and that is where part of folk music’s magic lies. Hopefully Ramblin’ Jack will visit the “great New York titty” again soon.

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Check out a video of Elliott playing “The Cuckoo”: