Ramblin’ Jack Elliott has been singing folk songs for so long that his first records were released on 78s, and the richness of his life experiences from traveling around the country and finding hidden treasure in the songs of his fellowman makes I Stand Alone a brilliant gem.

Elliott is the archetypal, rough and tumble troubadour who has collected songs from every corner of the country. He is a respected elder of the American underground folk tradition and his persona easily represents the Beat Generation’s beatniks, the cowboy culture’s poets, and country’s backhills, guitar-picking musicians.

The songs he selected for I Stand Alone have the ring of old friends, songs that have traveled with him long and far, and now come from a dignified place deep in his hillbilly soul. He sings selections from the Carter Family’s repertoire, Ernest Tubb, Leadbelly and Hoagy Carmichael among others, and there’s a strong sense of mortality throughout the album. The songs tell stories of common folk and how they lived and died. They are not unsung heroes but simply people remembered by Elliott. When singing Cisco Houston’s “Blue,” a song about a beloved dog who has passed away, Elliott can make you cry as he holds a high note and sings, “Blue, you good dog you / I’m coming, too.”

The plain speech of the lyrics and Elliott’s ripe voice make for a romanticized vision of a simpler life, but it’s not a vision that is based in fantasy. It exists in the land, in the people who live there, their trials and tribulations and in the simple pleasures of life like the love for a dog, for a train or for a woman. He salutes this simpler time in the album’s finale, “Woody’s Last Ride,” a recitation describing the last time he saw Guthrie when they drove across the country on “11 dollars and 44 cents.”

Elliott’s lively and fine guitar picking is sensitively accompanied by the likes of David Hidalgo, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, Flea, Nels Cline, X/Knitters drummer DJ Bonebrake and Lucinda Williams. One can only hope that their participation might help Elliott’s music reach the ears and hearts of young listeners and, in the tradition of folk music, the torch will be passed on to new generations.