The Lost Topic Tapes: Cowes Harbour 1957 (2004)

About this title: Born in Brooklyn, Jack Elliott reinvented himself as a cowboy folksinger in the Woody Guthrie mold (but without Guthrie's particular talent for recasting folk melodies into new compositions), and was adept at catching the nuances of rural American singing styles. He did indeed like to ramble, and he landed in London in 1955 just as the skiffle boom was taking off, signing to Topic Records. The songs on this disc were all recorded for Topic at a session on a yacht at Cowes Harbour on the Isle of Wight in 1957. Some of the tunes were issued on a 10" LP called Jack Takes the Floor and the rest ... read more

Tracks:

1. Intro
2. Hard Travelin' [Guthrie]
3. Big Rock Candy Mountain [Public Domain]
4. Old Rattler [Hunter]
5. Talking Columbia Blues [Guthrie]
6. Streets of Laredo [Public Domain]
7. Jack of Diamonds [Public Domain]
8. Rusty Jiggs & Sandy Sam [Traditional]
9. Tom Joad [Guthrie]
10. Acres of Clams [Traditional]
11. Freight Train [Cotten]
12. Chisholm Trail [Public Domain]
13. Crawdad Song [Traditional]
14. Black Girl (aka In the Pines) [Public Domain]
15. Tom Dooley [Public Domain]
16. Rocky Mountain Belle [Traditional]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.