Benefit for Jack Kerouac Center Project featuring Ramblin Jack Elliott

One of the last authentic links to the great folk traditions of this country, with over 40 albums under his belt, two-time GRAMMY-winner Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is considered one of the country’s legendary foundations of folk music. Long before every kid in America wanted to play guitar — before Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin — Ramblin’ Jack had picked it up and was passing it along. From Johnny Cash to Tom Waits, Beck to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones, all pay homage to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

In the tradition of roving troubadours, Jack has carried the seeds and pollens of story and song for decades from one place to another, from one generation to the next. They are timeless songs that outlast whatever current musical fashion strikes today’s fancy. His tone of voice is sharp, focused, and piercing; he plays the guitar effortlessly in a fluid, flat-picking, perfected style. A brilliant entertainer among fellow folk musicians waiting for you to come to them, Jack came out and grabbed you. Bob Dylan called him, “The King of the Folksingers”.

Though widely esteemed and recognized by many as a great American celebrity figure of Folk music, Jack resists becoming a commercial commodity. Ramblin’ Jack’s life of travels, performances, and recordings is a testament to the America of lore, a giant land of struggle, hard luck, and sometimes even of good fortune. The man Bob Weir calls a “hand-built, self-architectured American icon” takes us to places that spur the romance and passion of life in the tunes and voices of real people.

Turning 94 years young in 2025, Ramblin’ Jack’s ever-curious spirit finds him frequenting the road, seeking people, places, songs, and hand-crafted stories, wreaking of wood and canvas, cowhide, and forged metal. You’ll find him in the sleek lines of long-haul semi-truck, in the rigging of an old sailing ship, in the smell of a fine leather saddle, and performing LIVE into the seventh decade of his career.

The Jack Kerouac Foundation was formed to pursue funding for the establishment of a Jack Kerouac Museum, Performance, and Education Center in the magnificent former St Jean Baptiste Church, which was completed in 1896 to serve Lowell’s once-teeming Little Canada neighborhood. It is where Jack served as an altar boy and also the site of his funeral mass in 1969. The current owner has expressed openness to selling the building to be used to honor Lowell’s native son. 

 

Jack Kerouac is frequently referenced in radio programs, films, TV shows, and podcasts. Celebrated figures, from former U.S. President Barack Obama to Bob Dylan, iconic fashion designer Kim Jones and so many more speak of his enduring work and unique style of writing he named “spontaneous prose.” And while there have been monuments built to Kerouac, there is no museum, performance venue, or education center to celebrate this singular author’s artistry. There’s a strong case to be made that no author in history has been more influential in the musical arts as Jack Kerouac and the performance center will celebrate that legacy.