Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (Prestige International INT 13033, 1961) was produced by Kenneth S. Goldstein, with Rudy Van Gelder recording and mastering and John Greenway writing the liner notes. Elliott had spent years in Britain and Europe, where he toured with the banjo player Derroll Adams and recorded three albums for Topic by 1960, and he came home to find that he had become renowned in American folk circles. Elliott sings and plays guitar. John Herald plays guitar and Ralph Rinzler mandolin; both were members of the Greenbriar Boys.
The twelve songs are “Sadie Brown,” “East Virginia Blues,” “I Belong to Glasgow,” “The Cuckoo,” “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “South Coast” on the first side, and “San Francisco Bay Blues” (by Jesse Fuller), “The Last Letter,” a medley of “I Love Her So” and Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman,” “Candyman,” “Tramp on the Street” and “Railroad Bill” on the second. Reviewing it at the time in The Little Sandy Review, Paul Nelson called it Elliott’s “finest American recording.” Prestige reissued it as Prestige Folklore FL 14014, and in 1989 Fantasy combined it with Jack Elliott Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie as the double LP Hard Travelin’.
Tracklist
- 1 Talking Columbia Blues 3:46
- 2 Pretty Boy Floyd 3:02
- 3 Ludlow Massacre 4:12
- 4 Talking Miner Blues 2:01
- 5 Hard Travelling 3:29
- 6 So Long, It's Been Good to Know You 3:00
- 7 Talking Dust Bowl Blues 2:57
- 8 1913 Massacre 3:41
- 9 Rambling Blues 2:46
- 10 Talking Sailor Blues 4:04
- 11 San Francisco Bay Blues 2:57
- 12 Ol' Riley 2:05
- 13 The Boll Weevil 3:09
- 14 New York Town 3:24
- 15 Mule Skinner's Blues 5:25
- 16 East Texas Talking Blues 2:36
- 17 Dink’s Song alt version 3:27
- 18 It's Hard, Ain't It Hard 3:24
- 19 All Around the Water Tank 2:00
- 20 Mother's Not Dead 2:06
- 21 East Virginia Blues alt version 2:35
- 22 Danville Girl 2:57
- 23 Rich and Rambling Boys 2:49
- 24 Roll on Buddy alt version 2:10
- 25 Railroad Bill alt version 3:57
