Joan Baez Celebrates in Style
The grand dame of modern folk music, Joan Baez, continues to command respect despite the fact its been more than 50 years since she first came to prominence. Baez will forever be considered an icon thanks to her role as one of the prime movers of the ‘60s protest movement, and, in the company of her paramour Bob Dylan, folk royalty. Indeed, Baez was the comforting Earth mother who calmed the crowds at Woodstock during those days when Civil Rights and international strife were at the top of everyone’s mind. Clearly we still need her a half-century later, in these once-again tempestuous times.
There’s some comfort in the fact that, at age 75, she’s still as radiant as ever, both personally and poetically. It’s little surprise then that her many admirers turned out to offer homage on such an auspicious occasion.
Consequently, her 75th birthday bash at New York’s historic Beaccon Theater found her surrounded by fellow musicians and admirers from the upper tier — Paul Simon, Richard Thompson, David Crosby, Mavis Staples, the Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jackson Browne, and Judy Collins among them. Yet even surrounded by such illustrious luminaries, it’s Baez herself who seizes the spotlight.
Of course, it’s her vast canon that also draws attention, and with her artful delivery of venerable songs as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Diamonds & Rust,” “House of the Rising Sun,” Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” and the like, satisfaction is all but assured. Naturally, Baez never fails to deliver an impassioned performance, but these renditions are especially moving — and masterful as well. Through it all, it’s Baez’s brilliance that effortlessly shines through.