The Western Saloon & Run in with Ramblin' Jack Elliot

As I mentioned in an earlier post we tend to play some of the more out of the way, yet World Famous places and tonight Ramblin’ Jack Elliot was sitting at the bar at our show at The Great Western Saloon in Point Reyes. Apparently a few of our friends in Flagstaff are friends with his friends and told them to come check us out.

Point Reyes is only about 30 miles as a bird flies from San Fransisco, but a million worlds away. It was Jeff Manson’s 30^th birthday and we were surrounded by the most wonderful collection of Hippies, cowboys and general weirdos that I could ever imagine. We played with our friends Windy Gap & Leopold & His Fiction.

Ramblin' Jack used to travel with Woody Guthrie (is from Brooklyn like me) and is one of our biggest heroes.

Here he is singing San Francisco Bay Blues on an old TV set.

http://ramblinjack.com/

He bought me a Budweiser and we chatted about Brooklyn and his turn of the century row boat. He found it rotting in an old boat house in Massachusetts and drove it to California to rebuilt it. I imagine it's not exactly the luxury yacht that the Rolling Stones probably have, but he did it himself, which is what we love. I could see a million miles of highways in his eyes, and yet he looked so relaxed and in his element surrounded by all the crazy characters from Jeff's Birthday.

I used to have a picture of him and Woody Guthrie playing in Washington Square Park hanging on my wall. Landry and I have played there many times, and I love the photo because Woody looks like a bearded Hippie and Ramblin' Jack looks like a Brooklyn Cowboy.

I myself would like to split the difference.

The show erupted into a sweet booty-shakin' dance party and all three bands played a bit of Musical Chairs.

Leopold and his Fiction are one of our favorite new bands.

We met them in Nashville at a show we were both on at the Springwater Super Club a few months back. It was some sort of mystical meeting. It turns out we had tons of mutual friends from Santa Cruz way back, and I went on tour with Micayla and Little Wings to the K Records "What the Heck Fest" about 10 years ago.

They are one of the few bands we know that sound just as awesome in a backwater Saloon as a hip venue in San Fransisco.

Here they are on the web.

Check them out:

http://www.leopoldandhisfiction.com/

We will have many more awesome shows in the future