Ramblin' Jack is a true American legend whose career parallels the growth of the American folk music boom from the early 1950s, when he first "rambled" around the country with Woody Guthrie. He was a major influence on a young Bob Dylan in New York's Greenwich Village, along with everyone he's ever befriended in almost 70 years, including Jack Nicholson, Robert Duvall, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Jack Kerouac, Mick Jagger - and just about everyone who ever picked up a folk guitar.
"[Elliott] definitely was the link between Guthrie and what we're playing now," says singer/songwriter Joe Ely. "He was definitely that catalyst. Without him, there would be a vastly different music scene." Newsweek called him "one of the few authentic voices in folk music."
In his long career he has recorded more than 50 albums and garnered numerous awards, including a Grammy and the Bill Graham Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998 President Clinton recognized Elliott for his influence by presenting him with a National Medal Of Arts, calling him an "American treasure" in a ceremony held at The White House. Recently, Jack was the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary film, "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack."
