I first met Ramblin’ Jack Elliott in Reno back around 1982. He was hours late for a gig I had booked at the Ice House Saloon. That night it was snowing up on Donner Pass and when Jack drove up in his motorhome through the snowflakes, I figured he had gotten hung up coming over the hill in the storm. But no, he had come in from the Nevada desert and was late because he lost his dog while camping the day before. After probably 20 minutes of telling me about it (still in the parking lot), we were finally walking in to start the show and he said to me “They don’t call me ramblin’ because I travels a lot”.
We heard a half-dozen stories like that (and that once you met Jack, you felt like you were friends), from the artists Sunday night in SF’s packed Masonic Hall, a nice-sounding 3500-seat theater. Joe Henry was our charming Emcee and band leader and boy, what a band. Greg Leisz on dobro, pedal steel, guitars & mando stood out from the first note and was occasionally thrilling while being so understated you couldn’t tell he was THE mood & sound for the whole night. Jason Crosby on keys and fiddle wove in & out of Greg’s melodic work like they’d been doing it all their lives. These guys just floated my boat.
Early on the sound mix was predictably shaky through Sarah Lee Guthrie’s 2-song set with new Jiveradio fave Melissa Carper, but they held up and set a welcoming tone.
[There’s a full setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/various-artists/2024/masonic-auditorium-san-francisco-ca-23acd81f.html ]
[You can see some crowd videos (even though Joe asked us all to turn our phones off) in this Jambase post, which includes Bob Weir’s fun story about meeting Jack, here: https://www.jambase.com/article/bob-weir-joan-baez-ramblin-jack-elliott-tribute-concert]
[A review of the show by Relix mag: https://relix.com/news/detail/bobby-weir-peter-rowan-joan-baez-and-more-come-together-for-ramblin-jack-elliott-in-san-francisco/?mc_cid=ebb2f5db05 ]
The stories and love were the best part, but the standout musical moments to me were;
-Peter Rowan with Sarah Lee doing their cover of “The Cuckoo”,
-when Maria Muldaur brought out Roy Rogers to do some of his trademark blazing slide work on a Blind Willie cover,
-both of Dave Alvin’s songs (with that band…wow!).
-when the gravitas knob got turned up big time with Steve Earle telling a great story and intro over a rolling folkish guitar groove to Jack’s own “912 Green Street”. He growled it out and my earth shook.
-Nathaniel Rateliff’s cover of Hoyt Axton’s “Gypsy Moth”. Night Sweat’s guitarist Browan Lollar threw down some killer lead’s. Man, I have GOT to see that band!
-Jackson Browne’s “Far From The Arms of Hunger”, which he nodded to the children of Gaza, just tore me up like only serious “Folk” music can do. This song, and the whole evening’s program of poetry & song reminded me that “Folk” music was originally at it’s core about protest, activism, and community. The lyrical message was usually serious and called on the listener to speak out, to do something, or at least cry or empathize for other creatures not us. Oh, and call out The Man. I can only hope the billion-dollar Live Nation Man coughed up some couch change to help The Sweet Relief Musicians project.
Much thanks to Jack’s daughter Aiyana Elliott and the captivating Victoria Williams for their gargantuan efforts in putting this night together. We’ll be adding plenty of Victoria’s music to the Jive, along with more of the whole roster, which already looked like a Jive playlist.
After I watched Joan Baez close the show by dancing a little jig with Jack and we streamed out of the Masonic in a sea of the most silver ponytails I’ve ever seen in one place, I had to wonder how many last waltzes any of us have left, old or young. Please keep on kickin’ The Man and throw those you love the roses while they’re here!
I never did hear if he found the dog.
~jeff cotton
