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Reading a book on this basically unknown 50’s artist, and tracking cover artists on YouTube.
In between two tall mountains There's a place they call Lonesome Don't see why they call it Lonesome I'm never lonesome when I go there See that bird sitting on my window sill Well he's singing whippoorwill all the night through See that brook running by my kitchen door Well it couldn't talk no more if it was you Up that tree there's sort of a squirrel thing Sounds just like we did when we were quarreling In the yard I keep a pig or two They drop in for dinner like you used to do I don't stand in the need of company With everything I see talking like you Up that tree there's sort of a squirrel thing Sounds just like we did when we were quarreling You may think you left me all alone But I can hear you talk without a telephone I don't stand in the need of company With everything I see talking like you See that bird sitting on my window sill Well he's singing whippoorwill all the night through Just whippoorwill, all the night through In between two tall mountains There's a place they call Lonesome Don't see why they call it Lonesome I'm never lonesome, now I live there
Honeybee Go and tell a starling To go and tell my darling To hurry home to me Honeybee Say I'm sad and lonely And say I'm wishing only His loving smile to see We had a fight and he's been gone An hour by the clock upon the shelf He was right but I'm too proud To go and tell him so myself So honeybee Go and tell a starling To go and tell my darling To hurry home to me
This letter comes from fortune's child You see no other name is signed You may recall my heart was wild And to your love I only smiled. We never could go hand in hand So to your love I only smiled And you would never understand That I was fortune's only child You used to ask me what I wanted I said the world, and time, and space My heart was wild My head was haunted With every new and smiling face. I said I'd wait til fortune smiled I said I'd never change my mind This letter comes from fortune's child But when was fortune ever kind?
Connie lived in Greenwich Village in the 50’s….why didn’t she connect? Did she know Dylan or Rambling Jack Elliot? I asked AI :
Ramblin' Jack Elliott was a foundational pillar of the Greenwich Village folk revival, serving as the literal bridge between legendary dust-bowl troubadour Woody Guthrie and a young Bob Dylan. Born Elliott Charles Adnopoz to a Jewish doctor's family in Brooklyn, he completely eschewed his parents' middle-class expectations. Captivated by rodeo culture, he briefly ran away at age 15 to live as a cowboy. When he returned, he taught himself guitar and headed straight for the bohemian street scene of Greenwich Village.
The Greenwich Village Years (Early 1950s)
• The Meeting of Minds: In 1950, Elliott met Woody Guthrie during a Greenwich Village jam session. He became Guthrie's ultimate student, companion, and acolyte, living with the Guthrie family and completely absorbing Woody's vocal phrasing, flat-picking guitar technique, and lifestyle. • The Busking Pioneer: Long before the structured commercial "folk boom" of the 1960s, Elliott made a living busking on the sidewalks and steps of the neighborhood. On Sunday afternoons, his authentic cowboy ballads and traditional flat-picking style drew huge, eclectic crowds around the Washington Square Park Fountain. • The "Ramblin'" Moniker: Contrary to popular belief, his nickname didn't come from his hitchhiking travels. It was coined by fellow folk legend Odetta’s mother, who remarked on his long, winding, mosaic style of storytelling: "Oh, Jack Elliott, yeah, he can sure ramble on."
Impact and Legacy
Elliott temporarily left New York for Europe in the mid-1950s to popularize American folk music abroad. When he returned in 1961, he was greeted as a legendary icon by a new wave of artists. He regularly frequented Gerde's Folk City and famously mentored Bob Dylan. Dylan heavily emulated Elliott's nasal, strained singing voice and intricate guitar style—to the point that Dylan's earliest New York performances were tongue-in-cheek billed as the "Son of Jack Elliott." Now 95 years old, Elliott remains a vital, living artifact of that transformative post-war Greenwich Village counterculture. Would you like to explore: • The music itself, such as his 1955 debut album Woody Guthrie's Blues? • His relationship and travels alongside Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan? • Other specific folk venues of the era like Gerde's Folk City or the Gaslight Cafe?
would he have met or been acquainted with Connie Converse?
It is highly unlikely that Ramblin' Jack Elliott was acquainted with Connie Converse, and there is no historical record of them ever meeting, despite them living in Greenwich Village at the exact same time. While both were active in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in the early-to-mid 1950s, they operated in two completely separate social and musical universes:
1. Two Separate Worlds
• Jack Elliott’s Scene: Elliott was deeply embedded in the communal, public, and boisterous folk music revival. He was a busker singing traditional cowboy ballads and dust-bowl songs on the steps of Washington Square Park, hanging out with Woody Guthrie, and performing in rowdy local cellars. • Connie Converse’s Scene: Converse lived a much more private, insular life on Grove Street. She did not play the local folk clubs or busk in the parks. Instead, her music was shared almost exclusively at private salon gatherings and intimate house parties for a small circle of intellectual friends, artists, and academics.
2. A Clash of Musical Styles
Even if their paths had crossed, their musical philosophies were entirely different: • Elliott dedicated his early career to preserving and imitating traditional folklore and the songs of Woody Guthrie. • Converse was doing something completely unprecedented for the era: writing deeply personal, psychologically complex, and structurally sophisticated original singer-songwriter music. At the time, the Greenwich Village folk purists actually looked down on people performing their own original material, preferring traditional roots music.
3. The Biographer's Consensus
Journalist and musician Howard Fishman spent years tracking down Converse's life story for his comprehensive 2023 biography, To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse. His extensive research into the 1950s Greenwich Village ecosystem confirmed that Converse remained a hauntingly obscure "enigma," unknown to the major figures of the burgeoning folk boom like Elliott or Pete Seeger. By the time the Greenwich Village folk scene exploded into the mainstream in the early 1961—spearheaded by Elliott's return from Europe and Bob Dylan's arrival—Connie Converse had already given up on the music industry, packed her bags, and left New York forever.
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