Joan Baez C/D

to be honest she takes it back shortly after

http://i.imgur.com/3vLzMGT.png

So I picked tonight to get into Joan Baez. I'm running through the A&M albums at the moment because the little I'd heard before was a) from the 60s the timbre of her voice had a quality I didn't exactly love and b) A&M records made everyone sound brilliant from about 1970-75.

My instincts were right. This shit totally works for me.

Diamonds and Rust is my only exposure to her 70s output ... what else?

I started with Come From The Shadows, which was her first for A&M in 1972, and so far I've loved all of them. I'll branch out either backwards or forwards soon. Gulf Winds, despite its corny cover art, has some delightfully funky-smooth arranging.

The earliest album that I remember best (and still enjoy hearing in my head) is Joan Baez 5 (1964)---good presentation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez/5 (says Top 12 alb Us, Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune" Top 10 UK, move over Merseybeat!) Also points out this was her first evenly split between trad and originals---although the originals incl. some settings or elements of trad, hell they prob all do---from Cash and Dylan and R. Farina ( his incisive "Birmingham Sunday," re still-recent, notorious event) to deep UK, African-American and Latin ballads, Villa-Lobos for that matter, but it all works. Her more genteel, high-flown tendencies have to mix w earthy eloquence, deeper singing. Overall, kinda cosmic.

On One Day At A Time (1970) she's waiting out her husband's prison time for draft resistance, mixing w A-list Nashville cats, title track then a fresh sentiment and well=written by then mostly unknown-beyond-Nashville Willie Nelson, frequently in duet w Jeffrey Shurtleff, who was fervent but didn't get in the way, also got "No Expectations," killer "Seven Bridges Road," reissue, which I haven't heard, adds two of Merle Haggard's best (this of course from when he was still best known for trying to cash in on "Oakie From Muskogee" w worse shit: why these were left off, or they just ram out of optimum LP room?)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_at_a_Time_(album) Soulful, sensible, lyrical, goes against bummers-to-horrors of that year.

Also liked this 2005 set, well-produced by Steve Earle, whose writing and maybe suggested selections take her in some unexpected directions at times ("God ain't me/God ain't you.")https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_After_Tomorrow_(Joan_Baez_album)

New doc is pretty good.

Lots of interesting family stuff

Don’t really want to be that guy but, while I kind of admire her technical abilities and find her interesting as a person or personality, something about her performance still doesn’t quite compel me. Do like the song “Diamonds and Rust” at least.