I had a post all lined up for this morning, but then found this new song from the forthcoming Anti- Records release of A Stranger Here by Ramblin Jack Elliott. Here’s a contemporary of Bob Dylan’s who took a different path. Instead of co-opting his music for the marketplace Ramblin’ Jack Elliott remained true to his rural folk blues roots.
On his new record produced by Joe Henry the sound is altered slightly with weird atmospherics and creepy percussion added to the mix. Joe Henry always brings his own lush sound to a recording project and the same is true on A Stranger Here. I’m not sure what Anti- hopes to achieve commercially with their current roster of Betty LaVette, William Elliott Whitmore, and Mavis Staples but I like the direction they’re going in.
