Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, 77, is working with Joe Henry, who has produced Bettye LaVette, Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint in recent years, on a blues album.
A parade of musicians have been working on the sessions, among them Van Dyke Parks, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Greg Leisz, who plays just about every string instrument imaginable.
Word on the street is that the sessions are relaxed and professional.
Henry issued a statement: "Jack Elliot had never approached this music before, but it's important to understand that many of the country blues masters represented here were friends of Jack's.  These blues share a tremendous amount -- in both form and substance -- with the folk music of the same era, the 1930s; and few people made any such distinctions during that day. Everybody was dipping from the same stream, be it Woody Guthrie or Tampa Red, Jimmie Rodgers or Furry Lewis; and Jack drank it all in. His approach is fresh but authentic. He's using an old language but he's speaking in the present tense."
Anti- expects to release the record early next year. He won a Grammy for this one, but this one remains my favorite.