Joan Baez

Bio:

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Joan Baez is so ingrained in the collective consciousness as the archetypal coffeehouse folksinger that it's hard to remember that unless you happened to be hanging around Harvard Square at the close of the 1950s, you never got the chance to hear her perform in an intimate room. While still a teenager, Joan Baez appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, a musical watershed that - while lacking the galvanizing electricity of Elvis' hips, the Beatles' haircuts, or Bob Dylan's ellipsis and amplification - has had just as profound and durable an influence on American and international music mores. What makes the musical revolution Joan Baez pioneered so particularly remarkable is that it occurred so quietly and with so much personal restraint, grace, and humility that, to this day, as it continues to move forward in gentle organic rhythms, it seems too much in harmony with the natural order to feel like a cataclysm.

The 1960s were a period of cultural renaissance and political upheaval. Popular music, and especially rock and roll, began to articulate the exhilaration, conflict, yearnings and turbulence of the era. What Joan Baez introduced into the explosion was the strength, intelligence, and complexity of the feminine principal. Given an impossibly pure and crystalline soprano, a sense of personal integrity subject to confusion and endless questioning, acute intuition and painful instinct, Joan Baez, unlike the novas and divas of that, or any, era relied on something more deeply human that mere star-power. She could've been the big sister of everyone in the audience except she sang with the piercing clarity of an angel.

For the past nearly 50 years, as a singer, musician, social activist, and goodwill ambassador, Joan Baez has kept her pact with the spirit of her voice. Throughout her career, she has followed a pattern of mutual mentoring, begun when she first met Bob Dylan. She continues the pattern with striking results on recent tours that have included onstage collaborations with a range of talented young writers and performers, including Dar Williams, Eliza Carthy, and Josh Ritter among others.

Member Since:

March 21, 2007

Members:

..Joan Baez.. - guitar, vocals
..John Doyle.. - guitar, vocals
..Dirk Powell.. - fiddle, banjo, mandolin, accordian
..Todd Phillips.. - bass
..Gabriel Harris.. - percussion

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On February 9th Joan Baez joined the roster of performers for "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement."

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the concert to celebrate Black History month. Other participants in the concert included Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Yolanda Adams, The Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir and others. Morgan Freeman served as emcee, and the event featured songs from the Civil Rights Movement as well as readings from speeches and writings. The President made opening remarks at this concert held in the East Room which was streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov starting at 8:00pm EST.

The concert will be televised beginning on February 11th at 8:00pm EST on public broadcasting television stations nationwide. (Check your local listings.) National Public Radio will also produce a concert special from this event for broadcast throughout the month of February, beginning February 12th. The special will also be available at www.npr.org/music.

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On October 14th PBS's American Masters series premiered "Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound," the first comprehensive documentary to chronicle Joan's life and career. This film examines Joan's history as a recording artist and performer, as well as her remarkable journey as the conscience of a generation. The documentary's premiere television airing coincided with the DVD/CD release on October 13th, featuring bonus content and an audio soundtrack, in addition to rare performance footage, home videos and candid interviews with artists such as David Crosby, Bob Dylan, David Harris, Steve Earle, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Roger McGuinn. You can get your own copy from Amazon: CD (soundtrack), DVD, or DVD/CD deluxe combo.

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Joan's song for the people of Iran.

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Twenty-two years after its original release, Joan's autobiography And A Voice To Sing With has been re-released as a trade paperback by Simon & Schuster. Joan's is a journey of the spirit, told with intimacy and passion as she shares her introduction to folk music and her baptism as its first female star in the coffee houses of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She recounts her musical and personal entwinement with Bob Dylan; her marriage to David Harris, and their painful breakup; and the joy she found upon the birth of her son, Gabriel. With a new introduction by acclaimed music critic Anthony DeCurtis, this book is the story of an American cultural icon. Marked by the openness and vulnerability that have touched us in her music, and the passion and integrity that have informed her politics, this is a disarmingly frank and stirring memoir of the life and work of one of the most extraordinary performers of our time. You can get yours at Amazon

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Collector's Editions of both Gone From Danger and Ring Them Bells are now available. Gone From Danger includes a bonus CD of Joan's 1997 performance on public radio's Mountain Stage. Joining Joan on eight of the ten songs from the album are Dar Williams, Sinead Lohan, Betty and Gene Elders, and Richard Shindell. Ring Them Bells (previously released in the UK), features an additional six tracks, including three solo songs, and one additional song with Tish Hinojosa, one additional song with Indigo Girls and one additional song with Mary Chapin Carpenter. Both Collector's Edition CDs are on Joan's label, Bobolink, and distributed by Razor & Tie.

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Congratulations to Sharon Isbin on her Grammy win for Journey To The New World, which includes the "Joan Baez Suite: Opus 144," a piece by John Duarte comprised of songs from Joan's early career: "Once I Had A Sweetheart," "Rambler Gambler," "House of the Rising Sun," "The Lily Of The West," "The Unquiet Grave," "Silkie," "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," "Rake and Rambling Boy," "Wildwood Flower," and "The Trees They Do Grow High." The Sony Classical label CD also features Joan's vocals on "I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" and "Go 'Way From My Window." Click here to order from Amazon.

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Joan's latest CD, DAY AFTER TOMORROW, is in stores (online and offline) now, on the Bobolink label (distributed by Razor & Tie). Produced by Steve Earle, the album includes "Day After Tomorrow" (Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan), as well as three songs by Steve Earle, two by Eliza Gilkyson, one each by Thea Gilmore, Patty Griffin, Diana Jones, and Elvis Costello/Joseph Henry Burnett ("Scarlet Tide").

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Joan and Steve on DAY AFTER TOMORROW

Joan Baez and Steve Earle discuss working together on Joan's CD, DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

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On February 10, 2007, Joan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award by NARAS (The Recording Academy). The following evening she appeared on the Grammy Awards television broadcast introducing a performance by the Dixie Chicks.

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Record Label:

Bobolink/Distributed by Razor & Tie and Proper