Joan Baez is one of the most revered and important names in contemporary folk music, a pioneer of the protest movement in the 1960 alongside Bob Dylan and others, and an artist whose peerless voice and highly personal way with a song has influenced countless folk performers who have followed in her wake over the decades.
Born in Staten Island, NYC, in 1941 of Mexican and Scottish decent, she moved around the country with her parents – her scientist father worked for UNESCO – and embraced many social causes. She encountered Pete Seeger in her early teens, and was inspired by his style of music, and when her father took a position at MIT in Boston in 1958, she became heavily involved in the folk scene there, giving her first concerts that year. In 1959, with two other folk enthusiasts, she recorded a number of songs in a friend’s cellar, and that became the album Folk Singers Round Harvard Square, from which all the titles featuring Joan are included here.
She was invited to perform at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival which led to her signing with Vanguard Records, and her first two albums for Vanguard from 1960 and 1961, Joan Baez and Joan Baez Vol. 2, which comprise the rest of this collection. They feature Joan accompanying herself on guitar as she performs selections of mainly traditional songs, arranged and adapted by her to suit her highly distinctive style, and they provided the platform from which her extraordinary performing and recording career developed.
Recorded while she was still a teenager, the collection offers an enjoyable and captivating insight into her already highly developed talent. Now 81, Baez was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
TRACKS
Disc 1 |
|
|
Track |
Title |
Artist |
1 |
Banks Of The Ohio |
Joan Baez |
2 |
O What A Beautiful City |
Joan Baez |
3 |
Sail Away Ladies |
Joan Baez |
4 |
Black Is The Colour |
Joan Baez |
5 |
Lowlands |
Joan Baez |
6 |
What You Gonna Call Your Pretty Little Baby |
Joan Baez |
7 |
Kitty |
Joan Baez & Bill Wood |
8 |
So Soon In The Morning |
Joan Baez & Bill Wood |
9 |
Careless Love |
Joan Baez & Bill Wood |
10 |
Don't Weep After Me |
Joan Baez, Bill Wood & Ted Alevizos |
11 |
Silver Dagger |
Joan Baez |
12 |
East Virginia |
Joan Baez |
13 |
Fare Thee Well (10,000 Miles) |
Joan Baez |
14 |
House Of The Rising Sun |
Joan Baez |
15 |
All My Trials |
Joan Baez |
16 |
Wildwood Flower |
Joan Baez |
17 |
Donna Donna |
Joan Baez |
18 |
John Riley |
Joan Baez |
19 |
Rake And Rambling Boy |
Joan Baez |
Disc 2: |
|
|
Track |
Title |
Artist |
1 |
Little Moses |
Joan Baez |
2 |
Mary Hamilton |
Joan Baez |
3 |
Henry Martin |
Joan Baez |
4 |
El Preso Número Nueve |
Joan Baez |
5 |
Wagoner's Lad |
Joan Baez |
6 |
The Trees They Do Grow High |
Joan Baez |
7 |
The Lily Of The West |
Joan Baez |
8 |
Silkie (Child No.113) |
Joan Baez |
9 |
Engine 143 |
Joan Baez |
10 |
Once I Knew A Pretty Girl |
Joan Baez |
11 |
Lonesome Road |
Joan Baez |
12 |
Banks Of The Ohio |
Joan Baez |
13 |
Pal Of Mine |
Joan Baez |
14 |
Barbara Allen (Child No.84) |
Joan Baez |
15 |
The Cherry Tree Carol (Child No.54) |
Joan Baez |
16 |
Old Blue |
Joan Baez |
17 |
Railroad Boy |
Joan Baez |
18 |
Plaisir D'Amour |
Joan Baez |