Folk icon
RAMBLIN' JACK ELLIOTT

Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 7:30
Corazon, 401 S. Guadalupe, Santa Fe
Tickets at Lensic Box Office 505-988-1234 or online at ThirstyEarFestival.com.

TICKET OPTIONS:
1. $29 advance, $33 door. General Admission. Tickets at Lensic Box Office, 988-1234.
2. $100 VIP PACKAGE. 2 tickets, artist CD, acknowledgment from stage. Helps fund K-12 programs. Call 473-5723 to reserve.
3. SW Roots Music members call 473-5723 at least 3 days in advance to reserve discounted tickets.

There are no degrees of separation between Ramblin' Jack Elliott and the real thing. He ran away from his Brooklyn home at 14 to join the rodeo and learned to play guitar from a cowboy. In 1950, he met Woody Guthrie and traveled the country with him, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. Jack became so enthralled with the life and composer of "This Land Is Your Land" that he completely absorbed Woody's inflections, and would later be the primary link in the chain between Guthrie and Bob Dylan. In 1954, Jack journeyed through Appalachia and the South to absorb authentic American folk music and the blues first-hand from the likes of Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Reverend Gary Davis. He met a young Bob Dylan in 1961 at Woody Guthrie's bedside, and proceeded to mentor the young artist. "His voice is sharp, focused and piercing," Dylan would later write, "and he plays the guitar effortlessly in a fluid flat-picking perfected style....Jack was King of the Folksingers." A multi-Grammy winner with more than 40 albums behind him, Jack was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1998. But the accolades have not interrupted the life of a traveling troubadour. At 77, Ramblin' Jack is still on the road, still seeking those people, places, songs and stories that are hand-crafted, reeking of wood and canvas.