Ramblin’ Jack goes Guthrie

Woody Guthrie, America’s legendary folk music troubadour, was born 100 years ago and died nearly a half-century ago, in the fall of 1967.

But his songs, including such classics as “This Land Is Your Land” and “Ain’t Got No Home,” live on. Folks will be singing his songs Sunday at “A Woody Guthrie 100th Birthday Jubilee” in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square.

The headliner will be Ramblin’ Jack Elliott of West Marin County, who figures he and Pete Seeger are about the only folk singers left who actually worked with Woody Guthrie.

Elliott performed and traveled with Guthrie from 1951 to 1954.

“I drove Woody down to Florida in 1953 in a Model A Ford,” Elliott said, “and in 1954, we drove out to California.”

Because Guthrie died at age 55, just as a new generation of folk singers was coming up, Elliott served as an inter-generational link between Woody Guthrie and the young Bob Dylan and even Woody’s son, Arlo.

Born Aug. 1, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York, Elliott will be 81 next month, according to the calendar. But Elliott reckons his age differently.

“When I turned 79, Pete Seeger sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me and played the banjo, and I got embarrassed,” Elliot said. “So I decided to go back the other way, and the next year, I turned 78. On Aug. 1, I’ll be 77. It’s the best idea I’ve had in a long time. I feel a lot younger.”

Elliott needs all the youthful energy he can get this year, because the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth has kept Elliott on the road, playing commemorative shows. He recently appeared with Kris Kristofferson in Los Angeles and will go to the Midwest and New York later in the summer, heading for Norway in the fall.

“I’ve got a lot more gigs this year than I did last year,” Elliott said.

Even though Elliott will be the only surviving Guthrie collaborator performing Sunday in Santa Rosa, he’ll still have a lot of company. The free festival also features more than a dozen local bands and up to half a dozen speakers.

Elliott said he’s not sure what’ll he play at the show, although he favors “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd” and “The Ballad of Tom Joad.”
“I don’t use a set list. I’m more in the moment. I’ll probably tell some stories about Woody,” Elliott said.

“Woody had a great love of this country, and it shows in his poetry. He loved the working man, and he hated to see the working man get cheated,” he said.

“People thought he had to be a communist because of that,” Elliott added. “He was left-wing, but the communists didn’t want him, because he was too much of an individualist.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. See his ARTS blog at http://arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.

GUTHRIE TRIBUTE
What: “This Train: A Woody Guthrie 100th Birthday Jubilee,” featuring Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
When: 11 a.m,-6 p.m. Sunday, July 29.
Where: Railroad Square, Santa Rosa.
Admission: free.
Information: thistrain.org