Seventy-seven-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is one of the last bona fide American troubadours. In his early teens, Elliott ran away from his home in Brooklyn to join the rodeo, and picked up guitar from a cowboy. In the ‘50s, he became a disciple of Woody Guthrie, traveling the country with nothing but a six-string and a toothbrush.

Now, after more than 40 albums, Ramblin’ Jack takes a break from the folk music he’s most known for to try something different with noted Americana producer Joe Henry. On A Stranger Here, he tackles ten country-blues standards, from Blind Willie Johnson to Furry Lewis, with help from David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and Van Dyke Parks. The titles and lyrics may be familiar to fans of the blues, but Elliott’s polished renderings of the old and sometimes grainy recordings are entirely his own. The weary vocals and minimalist instrumentation on “Grinnin’ In Your Face” produce a spooky track that is every bit as evocative as Son House’s a cappella version, and songs like “Richland Women Blues” and “Falling Down Blues” are perfect for a summer afternoon of porch-sitting and iced tea. You could argue the songs on A Stranger Here aren’t as good as the originals and you’d probably be right, but Elliott’s greatness is in his delivery, and his ability to make you believe that the songs written by black, pre-civil rights era southerners came from his pen. - Benjamin Evans