I keep this little spiral-bound notebook in a cubbyhole on my desk and in it are miscellaneous old tidbits of information. Stuff like e-mail addresses, contact information for grass Valley festivals gone by, CBA directors phone numbers, cell phone numbers, etc.. As the information gets deleted, I tear the pages out until only pertinent information remains. Consequently, there’s only about a dozen pages left in the little note book and the majority of the information contained in it have to do with ideas for my monthly welcome messages. Today, while thumbing through it looking for an idea for Thursday’s welcome message, I noticed a sentence that said; the night that Pat and I met Ramblin Jack Elliott. Pat being, Pat Russell my cowboy buddy who is the older brother of Tom Russell, the entertainer. So here’s how Pat Russell and I met Ramblin Jack Elliott.
Tom Russell was booked to play Constable Jacks, in Newhall, California, a little town on Highway 80, just west of Auburn, California. Constable Jacks is a neat venue that seats maybe 100 people and on that said night it was packed. Pat picked me up at my house around three o’clock in his cowboy Cadillac [Dodge crew cab pickup] and we headed up the mountain to Newhall, and got there around 5:30. The show didn’t start till seven o’clock so we had plenty of time to enjoy a nice leisurely meal and a few cold beers. The food there was excellent, and the beer was decently chilled, and come showtime, the crowd was definitely in a festive mood. Tom was pleasantly surprised to see Pat and I there at the show and we had time to visit a few minutes before the show started. Toward the end of the first set, I seen this elderly gentleman come in the door, wearing a well-traveled cowboy hat and I recognized him right off as being the one and only Ramblin Jack Elliott. I poked Pat in the ribs, and said, look who just showed up. He took one look at the older gentleman and said who the hell is that? That my boy says I, is none other than Ramblin Jack Elliott, the original Brooklyn cowboy! Well I’ll be cow kicked, said Pat! By this time Jack was looking for an empty chair and I stood up and motioned to him to come join us, which he gladly did. Now Jack and Tom Russell are great friends, and have appeared together several times at different shows. So I introduced Pat to him as Tom’s brother then introduced myself, telling him I knew who he is and how much I admired his work over the years
Tom saw him when he came in, and after Jack got seated at our table and introduced around, Tom told the crowd that one of his heroes had showed up at the show tonight and introduced Jack to the crowd, to a resounding round of applause. After a couple of more songs there was about a 45 min. intermission, where Tom and his guitar player. Andrew Harden came and sat at our table until the show started again. About halfway into the second set, Tom got Jack to come join him and do six or seven songs with them. This was definitely a magic night for all of us in attendance. Jack told the story of how he got into show business when he was 12 years old. The circus came to Brooklyn where he lived, and a guy went by his house one day leading a horse, so Jack just followed him to the circus, and a week or so later when the circus left town, he ran away from home with them. True story. Jack said he never regretted it one bit.
After the show was over that night and the crowd had left, Pat and I sat and visited with Tom, his guitar player Andrew, and Jack until about two o’clock in the morning. Naturally Pat told him that I was a bluegrass musician all my life, and when Ramblin Jack found out that I knew Rose Maddox and had played music with her in years past, he was absolutely ecstatic. He told me that Rose was one of his favorite female vocalists of all time, and that they had known each other for many years, and it broke his heart when she passed away. I only wish I could remember the places he told me that they played together in years past. Jack regaled us with stories of the years he spent with Woody Guthrie on the road, and all the good times and hard times they had, but he said he would not change one thing looking back.
That was definitely a magic night, one I shall never forget. I only wish I had of taken a tape recorder with me to get those stories recorded for moments like these are few and far between and are too soon gone from this earth. But how was I to know that a living legend like Ramblin Jack Elliott was gonna show up that night right out of the blue? Also, I must pay more attention to my little notebook and quit overlooking the single sentences that leads to stories like this.
Before I forget, Tom and his guitar player Andrew Harden put on a stellar show that night, and the crowd was definitely a Tom Russell crowd. But the addition of Ramblin Jack Elliott absolutely put a thick layer of good country “frosting”on the show that night. What I wouldn’t give to see that show again. Real Americana at its very best!!!
