Joan Baez

  • Staten Island, NY
    hometown
  • Blues/Folk
    genre
  • 1958
    started
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About Joan Baez

Official Site: http://joanbaez.com/ | @joancbaez


The most accomplished interpretive folksinger of the 1960s, Joan Baez has influenced nearly every aspect of popular music in a career still going strong. Baez is possessed of a once-in-a-lifetime soprano, which, since the late '50s, she has put in the service of folk and pop music as well as a variety of political causes. Starting out in Boston, Baez first gained recognition at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, then cut her debut album, Joan Baez (October 1960), for Vanguard Records. It was made up of 13 traditional songs, some of them children's ballads, given near-definitive treatment. A moderate success on release, the album took off after the breakthrough of Joan Baez, Vol. 2 (September 1961), and both albums became huge hits, as did Baez's third album, Joan Baez in Concert, Pt. 1 (September 1962). Each album went gold and stayed in the bestseller charts more than two years.

From 1962 to 1964, Baez was the popular face of folk music, headlining festivals and concert tours and singing at political events, including the August 1963 March on Washington. During this period, she began to champion the work of folk songwriter Bob Dylan, and gradually her repertoire moved from traditional material toward the socially conscious work of the emerging generation of '60s artists like him. Her albums of this period were Joan Baez in Concert, Pt. 2 (November 1963) and Joan Baez 5 (October 1964), which contained her cover of Phil Ochs' "There But for Fortune," a Top Ten hit in the U.K.

Like other popular folk performers, Baez was affected by the changes in popular music wrought by the appearance of the Beatles in the U.S. in 1964 and Dylan's introduction of folk-rock in 1965, and she began to augment her simple acoustic guitar backing with other instruments, initially on Farewell, Angelina (October 1965). It was followed by a Christmas album, Noël (October 1966), and Joan (August 1967), albums on which she was accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Peter Schickele. Baez continued to experiment in the late '60s, releasing Baptism (June 1968), in which she recited poetry, and Any Day Now (December 1968), a double album of Dylan songs done with country backing, which went gold.

In March 1968, Baez had married antiwar protest leader David Harris, who was imprisoned as a draft evader. Harris was a country music fan, and Baez's turn toward country, which continued on David's Album (June 1969) and One Day at a Time (March 1970), reflected his taste. Blessed Are... (August 1971) was a gold-selling double album that spawned a gold Top Ten hit in Baez's cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." It was followed by Carry It On (December 1971), the soundtrack to a documentary about Baez and Harris. Baez switched record label affiliation to A&M Records with Come from the Shadows (May 1972), which moved her in a more pop direction. Where Are You Now, My Son? (May 1973) included sounds taped during Baez's visit to Hanoi in December 1972.

In the late '60s and early '70s, Baez moved toward pop/rock music and also began to write her own songs, culminating in the gold-selling Diamonds & Rust (April 1975), which was followed by the entirely self-written Gulf Winds (October 1976). Baez moved to the Portrait label of CBS Records with Blowin' Away (June 1977), but she left the label after Honest Lullaby (May 1979), and her next album, European Tour (1980), was released only outside the U.S. It was another seven years before she found an American record label, Gold Castle, for Recently (1987), which was followed by the live album Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring (January 1989) and Speaking of Dreams (October 1989). Baez moved to Virgin Records for Play Me Backwards (August 1992).

In 1993, Vanguard released Rare, Live & Classic, a three-CD boxed set retrospective. Ring Them Bells, a live album on which Baez was joined by musical descendants like Mary Chapin Carpenter and Indigo Girls, came out on Guardian Records in 1995. Gone from Danger, her first studio album in five years, followed in 1997, and it was another six years before the release of Dark Chords on a Big Guitar in 2003. A November 2004 concert in New York was documented on the 2005 release Bowery Songs. Baez's 24th studio album, Day After Tomorrow, produced by Steve Earle, was released on September 9, 2008, by Bobolink/Razor & Tie, followed by Sing Me Home almost exactly a year later in 2009.. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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Photos

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  • Joan Baez performing at Woodstock
    Joan Baez
    Joan Baez performing at Woodstock
    Henry Diltz and Michael Lang
  • Joan Baez
    Joan Baez
    Joan Baez
    Kevin Winter/Getty Images
  • Joan Baez
    Dana Tynan

News

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  • Joan Baez
    Joan Baez back on chart after 29 years
    music.yahoo.com
    . 9. "Righteous Love" went to No. 90 in 2000 and "Breakfast in Bed" stopped at No. 160 last year. Reuters/Billboard ... Joan Baez back on chart after ...
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  • Joan Baez
    Inside Rolling Stone’s Afternoon With Folk Icons Pete Seeger and Joan Baez
    www.rollingstone.com
    movement, about singing with Woody Guthrie and Odetta, about the effect that the arts and technology have had on the struggle for human rights. "There...
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  • Joan Baez
    Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Decemberists To Play 50th Anniversary Newport Folk Festival
    www.rollingstone.com
    Wein said. "I have to put on my festival. It has to be a quality event. It has to take care of the crowd." This year's Jazz Festival, taking place the...
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  • Joan Baez
    Paul Simon and Joan Baez Team for New York Benefit
    www.rollingstone.com
    ." But Baez didn't seem to need much coaxing. She offered up an alternate lyric to "Diamonds and Rust," her ... Paul Simon and Joan Baez Team for New ...
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  • Joan Baez
    Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Decemberists To Play 50th Anniversary Newport Folk Festival
    www.rollingstone.com
    Photo: Stawiarz/Getty For its 50th anniversary, the Newport Folk Festival has recruited two artists who took the stage at the inaugural 1959 event: Jo...
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  • Joan Baez
    Joan Baez, "The Cherry-Tree Carol"
    American Songwriter
    on their 1964 album for Decca, Folk Route, New Routes, and fellow Brit-folkers Pentangle recorded it on 1972's Soloman's Seal. Emmylou Harris recorded...
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  • Joan Baez
    Mickey Hart Offers Free Tracks, Shares "Friend of the Devil" with Joan Baez
    www.jambands.com
    the Mountain" (5/17/12, Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO) and "Bertha" (5/16/12, The State Room, Salt Lake City, UT). In other news, on May 5 Mickey Hart Ban...
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  • Joan Baez
    Joan Baez to Tour with Indigo Girls
    www.jambands.com
    Folk icon Joan Baez will tour U.S. in June, including ten co-headlining shows with Indigo Girls. The joint performances, including dates at Chicago's ...
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  • Joan Baez
    AP Interview: Joan Baez returns to past in Vietnam
    music.yahoo.com
    Related ContentPlay Video 40 Years On, Joan Baez Returns to Vietnam Associated Press Videos 1:37View Photo In this April 5, 2013 photo, Joan Baez spea...
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Tour Dates

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  • Jun 1 Saturday
    Boulder, CO, US Chautauqua Auditorium
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  • Jun 2 Sunday
    Arvada, CO, US Arvada Center For The Arts & Humanities
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  • Jun 4 Tuesday
    Salina, KS, US Stiefel Theatre
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  • Jun 6 Thursday
    Apple Valley, MN, US Weesner Amphitheater, Minnesota Zoo
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  • Jun 7 Friday
    Madison, WI, US Overture Center for the Arts - Capitol Theater
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  • Jun 9 Sunday
    Highland Park, IL, US Ravinia Pavilion
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  • Jun 9 Sunday
    Highland Park, IL, US Ravinia Pavilion
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  • Jun 11 Tuesday
    Charlottesville, VA, US Charlottesville Pavilion
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  • Jun 12 Wednesday
    Vienna, VA, US Filene Center, Wolf Trap
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  • Jun 14 Friday
    Atlanta, GA, US Chastain Park Amphitheatre
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  • Jun 15 Saturday
    Atlanta, GA, US Chastain Park Amphitheatre
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  • Jun 17 Monday
    New York, NY, US Central Park
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  • Jun 19 Wednesday
    Newark, NJ, US Prudential Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
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  • Jun 20 Thursday
    Philadelphia, PA, US The Mann Center for the Performing Arts
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  • Jun 20 Thursday
    Philadelphia, PA, US The Mann Center for the Performing Arts
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  • Jun 22 Saturday
    Bethel, NY, US Bethel Woods Center For The Arts
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  • Jun 23 Sunday
    Lenox, MA, US Tanglewood
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  • Jun 26 Wednesday
    Portland, ME, US State Theatre
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  • Jun 28 Friday
    Lowell, MA, US Boarding House Park
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  • Jun 29 Saturday
    New Bedford, MA, US Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
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  • Aug 8 Thursday
    Melbourne, VIC, Australia Hamer Hall, Arts Centre
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  • Aug 9 Friday
    Melbourne, VIC, Australia Hamer Hall, Arts Centre
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  • Aug 20 Tuesday
    Sydney, NSW, Australia Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
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  • Aug 21 Wednesday
    Sydney, NSW, Australia Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
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  • Aug 29 Thursday
    Auckland, New Zealand The Civic, the Edge
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  • Aug 31 Saturday
    Wellington, New Zealand Michael Fowler Centre
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Discography

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Next Page
  • Play Me Backwards (2011)
    Joan Baez
    Play Me Backwards (2011)
    Proper Records
  • Day After Tomorrow (2008)
    Joan Baez
    Day After Tomorrow (2008)
    Razor & Tie
  • Bowery Songs (2005)
    Joan Baez
    Bowery Songs (2005)
    Proper Sales & Dist.
  • Dark Chords on a Big Guitar (2003)
    Joan Baez
    Dark Chords on a Big Guitar (2003)
    Koch Records
  • Gone from Danger (1997)
    Joan Baez
    Gone from Danger (1997)
    Guardian/Angel
  • Live at Newport (1996)
    Joan Baez
    Live at Newport (1996)
    Vanguard
  • Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring (1996)
    Joan Baez
    Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring (1996)
    Guardian/Angel
  • Ring Them Bells (1995)
    Joan Baez
    Ring Them Bells (1995)
    Guardian/Angel
  • Play Me Backwards (1992)
    Joan Baez
    Play Me Backwards (1992)
    Guardian/Angel
  • Speaking of Dreams (1989)
    Joan Baez
    Speaking of Dreams (1989)
    Guardian/Angel
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