JOAN BAEZ LIVE: "From Every Stage"

Original released on Double LP A&M SP 3704

(US, January 1976)

Listening to this album a quarter century after the fact is an eerie experience; as a Baez fan of the same period and of a politically similar orientation at the time, this reviewer was shocked by the vitriol of the opening number, "(Ain't Gonna Let Nobody) Turn Me Around," especially given that the shows where this album was recorded dated from July and August of 1975. Was anyone (except maybe the Reagan-ites) ever really that angry at the Ford administration? Otherwise, Baez's trembling falsetto is in beautiful shape on songs ranging from Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" to "Oh, Happy Day." The album was recorded on the tour supporting the release of "Diamonds & Rust", but nothing of that album except the title track is represented here; rather, Baez performs five Bob Dylan songs (which get the most rousing reception), three of her better originals, including "Blessed Are" and "Diamonds and Rust," and a brace of traditional songs and covers of a handful of other composers' work, including "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Apart from the opening outpouring of political venom, there's not too much controversy here - a pair of songs, "Natalia" and "The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzett," dedicated to political prisoners and an ambitious but ultimately awkward adaptation of "Stewball" are as topical as most of the show gets. Baez is in superb voice and the backing septet, mostly heard on the second disc, has a surprisingly lean sound. Ultimately, "From Every Stage" is a good, albeit far slicker follow-up to Baez's two early-'60s live albums on Vanguard, though it says something about the nature of her history at A&M Records that five years into her contract with that label, all but a handful of the songs here were associated with her prior record label. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

JOAN BAEZ CANTA EN ESPAÑOL

Original released on LP A&M SP-3614

(US, March 1974)

Despite her Latin heritage, Joan Baez probably wouldn't have been encouraged by her 1960s record label, the New York-based independent Vanguard, to sing an entire album in Spanish. At A&M Records, the Los Angeles firm co-founded by Herb Alpert that she joined in the early '70s, however, it would have been a different story, and it was A&M that released "Gracias a la Vida" ("Here's to Life") in 1974. Baez demonstrates an affinity for Mexican folk music on such obvious choices as "Cucurrucucu Paloma," but it's no surprise that, a year after the assassination of leading nueva canción folksinger Victor Jara in a military coup in Chile, an atrocity that shocked the American folk community, she has not backed away from her political commitments. There is "Guantanamera," a song that may have been a Top Ten U.S. hit for the Sandpipers in 1966, but that has political implications, as Pete Seeger has been reminding listeners for more than a decade. There is a Spanish version of "We Shall Not Be Moved" ("No Nos Moveran") with a lengthy spoken introduction. There are songs like "El Preso Numero Nueve" ("Prisoner Number Nine"; repeated from 1960's "Joan Baez") and "Esquinazo del Guerrillero" ("The Guerillas Serenade"). And, inevitably, there is a song of Jara's, "Te Recuerdo Amanda" ("I Remember You Amanda"), which the slain singer wrote for his mother. But then there is also "Dida," a wordless duet with Joni Mitchell. Throughout, Baez demonstrates her mastery of Spanish singing over authentic arrangements while attempting to stir up her Spanish-speaking listeners just as she does their English-speaking compatriots. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

JOAN BAEZ: "Blessed Are..."

Original released on Double LP Vanguard VSD 6570/1

(US, August 1971)

With "Blessed Are...", Joan Baez found herself with a hit single on the charts. That song, a cover of Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," is just one of the many surprises on "Blessed Are...". Once again using some of Nashville's finest pickers and songwriters, Baez runs the gamut of such influences as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Mickey Newberry, Jesse Winchester, Stevie Wonder and, of course, herself, while sounding nothing more than like Joan Baez always has. Great music, and a lot of it, too, for when it was released on vinyl, it was a double album with a special 7" single included. Altogether, 22 tracks of some of Joan's finest. (James Chrispell in AllMusic)

JOAN BAEZ IN CONCERT (Parts 1 & 2)

Original released on LP Vanguard VRS-9112

(US, September 1962)

Originally released in 1962, "In Concert, Pt. 1" captures the undisputed queen of folk music at the onset of her fabled career. Featuring 20-bit remastering from the original analog tapes, exact replicas of the original artwork and liner notes, previously unreleased cuts, and additional liner notes, this installment of Vanguard's Original Master Series is a historic collection of contemporary and traditional folk. Though Baez was reportedly suffering from stage fright at the time of these recordings, which were cobbled from the fall of 1961 to the spring of 1962, her delivery is crystal clear and confident. The exhaustive selection of material represents her diverse influences, most notably African tradition ("Kumbaya"), gospel ("Gospel Ship"), negro spiritual ("My Lord What a Morning"), West African ("Danger Waters"), Brazilian ("Até Amanhã," which is sung in Portuguese), and blues ("Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"), Baez's performances still retain freshness and vitality after six decades. (Tom Semioli in AllMusic)

Original released on LP Vanguard VRS-9113

(US, November 1963)

Like its predecessor, "Joan Baez in Concert, Pt. 1", this live album was a huge success, making the Top Ten. However, though it was recorded not long after "Joan Baez in Concert, Pt. 1" and is also a live album on which the only accompaniment is her own acoustic guitar, it's not merely a second set of recordings of similar material. Her repertoire was evolving from purely traditional folk to encompass significant work by contemporary folksinger / songwriters. Most prominent among those, of course, was Bob Dylan, and "In Concert, Pt. 2" features her first two Dylan covers, "With God on Our Side" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." For that alone, the album was notable, but there were other notable expansions into interesting new territory, like the country classic "Long Black Veil," Derroll Adams' great melancholy "Portland Town," the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome," and bossa nova great Luiz Bonfá's "Manhã de Carnaval." Baez's growth was not so radical as to alienate any of her folk followers, and the album still featured several traditional folk songs of the sort that had launched her career, like "Once I Had a Sweetheart" and "Jackaroe." The introduction of less-hidebound excursions, though, did much to lighten her approach and keep her from falling into too much of a maiden-of-constant-sorrow rut. (Richie Unterberger in AllMusic)

The Early Recordings Of JOAN BAEZ

Original released on LP Fantasy 5015 (F-2379)

(US, 1964)

Joan Baez was born on Staten Island, New York on January 9th 1941 to a Mexican father and Scottish mother. Her father studied mathematics and physics and eventually would co-invent the X Ray microscope. He worked in the health industries and for UNESCO and Joan was brought up in numerous different parts of the world due to her father's work. She was introduced to the folk music of The Weavers by an aunt and by the age of 16 had bought her first acoustic guitar and shortly afterwards the family moved to the suburbs of Boston. Here she became heavily involved with the local folk music scene that was growing across America on college campuses. Soon The Kingston Trio would take the music into the charts with a string of huge selling albums, followed by several other male orientated folk groups. Solo female folk singers were in short supply and those that did perform were usually considerably older than the audiences they were entertaining. Joan began to acquire a following in the coffee houses and folk clubs where she slowly began to perform regularly.

In June of 1958 at the age of 17 she made her first recordings. Some years later she recalled the circumstances: «I was still in high school, two guys approached me and said 'hey little girl, would you like to make a record?' They were rogues, but I didn't know that. So off we went to San Francisco, I recorded everything I knew on a gigantic borrowed Gibson guitar.»  The recordings were little more than demos and featured a trio of recent pop hits, Richie Valens' "La Bamba", The Coasters' "Young Blood" and Hank Ballard & The Midnighters' "Work With Me Annie" and you are unlikely to hear more bizarre versions of those rock and roll and rhythm and blues classics. Recent hits by Harry Belafonte were more suited to her style as were the clutch of traditional folk songs like "I Gave My Love a Cherry". If the purpose was to gain a recording deal for the teenager it failed on all counts. It was eventually released in 1963, after her first chart success, on the Berkeley, California based Fantasy label and actually sold well before she was able to get the disc withdrawn.

A few months after that session she made another recording with fellow Boston area performers, Bill Wood and Ted Alevizos. She recorded five tracks solo and duetted on three more with Wood and on another with Wood and Alevizos (we have not included the Wood and Alevizos solo tracks for obvious reasons). The album was released on the local Veritas label in 1959 and again featured her performing traditional songs that were staples of the folk circuit. The disc was reissued in 1963 as "The Best of Joan Baez" and reached the Top 50 of Billboard's album charts before she was once again able to secure its withdrawal.

DYLAN & BAEZ (1965)

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