Of all the Woody Guthrie albums I hunted down in the mid '80s — and we've had a few a couple already (1, 2) — this is my favourite. The catch is that it's not actually by Woody, but by his travelling companion and apprentice, Ramblin' Jack Elliott — the man who learnt so well that his Bobness was able to learn from him as Woody-proxy when Woody himself was too ill.
It's my favourite because of the selection of songs, mixing the 'hits' (This Land is Your Land, Hard Travelling), the humorous talking blues (Talking Columbia/Miner/Sailor Blues), and those righteous narrative protests where it's always the case that the bosses, in Neil Young's later words, "might have left some babies crying on the ground" (Ludlow Massacre, 1913 Massacre). Also the recording quality is generally better than with Woody's originals — though there's some distortion when I listen to this, which I assume is there in the recording rather than the way my trusty turntable plays this record.
You can't get this record any more. As far as I can tell from this magnificent illustrated discography my copy is the 1963 release on Topic — itself a compilation of earlier releases — that was also issued on Delmark in the US in 1968 (with a different cover). You can hear all the songs on the Hard Travelin' album linked to below, but you don't get Jack's spoken introductions at the beginning of each side, where he mimics Woody's own intros.
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