Joan Baez

Joan Baez – Diva Of The Folk Revival: Early Days And Late, Late, Nights (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:17 minutes | 269 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Joan Chandos Baez [dəə ˈn ˈbaɪəz] (born January 9, 1941 in New York City) is an American folk singer and guitarist, civil rights activist, pacifist and environmental activist. She was best known for her characteristic soprano voice and her political commitment against the Vietnam War and racial segregation. She has been one of the icons of the American folk movement since the 1960s; her appearance in Woodstock is as famous as her love affair with Bob Dylan. As the “voice and conscience of her generation”, the “Queen of Folk” gained influence not only in the US protest scene, but also internationally.

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Joan Baez – Whistle Down the Wind (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:02 minutes | 786 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Proper Records

After a decade of discographic silence, the high priestess of folk comes out of her reservation to remind us of the aura and uniqueness of her voice. It is a necessary inner cry in respect of the still troubled times that is Trump’s America. The engaged artist that she has always been had to express herself, again and again, on her favorite themes. Time has admittedly left a mark on her singing, but not on the intensity of the performances that Joan Baez offers here of songs penned by Tom Waits, Josh Ritter, Anohi, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Joe Henry, who is also the disc’s producer. This is incidentally in her ability to appropriate other’s writings that always fascinated people. And when she revisits The President Sang Amazing Grace, that Zoe Mulford had composed after the Charleston church shooting in June 2015, the emotion is more than intense.
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Joan Baez – Where Are You Now, My Son? (1976/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:08 minutes | 955 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M

This isn’t only not the place to start listening to Joan Baez, it’s the album that separates the true fans from the, um, fellow travelers. Side two is taken up by the title song, a musical account of Baez’s trip to Hanoi over Christmas of 1972, complete with the sound of U.S. bombs falling on the city. Side one, on the other hand, contains one of Baez’s best original songs, “A Young Gypsy,” and two by her sister, “Mary Call” and “Best of Friends.” – William Ruhlmann
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Joan Baez – Live At Woodstock (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:40 minutes | 972 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings

The Mexican-American Joan Baez offered a peaceful end to a chaotic first day of Woodstock. The female equivalent of folk god Bob Dylan, the pregnant Baez took the state and offered a serene playlist for the crowd just before rain washed over the Bethel, NY event.
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Joan Baez – Joan Baez In San Francisco, 1958 (Her Earliest Recordings) (1958/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 26:07 minutes | 240 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Joan Baez in San Francisco was a demonstration record recorded by the 17-year-old Joan Baez in 1958, released without permission on Fantasy Records in 1964. Baez sued to block its distribution and it was withdrawn. It was released by Bear Family Records as A Package of Joan Baez.
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Joan Baez – Joan Baez (The Classic Debut Album..Plus!) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:18 minutes | 768 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Joan Chandos Baez is an American singer, songwriter, musician and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest or social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages.
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Joan Baez – Joan Baez (1960/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:43 minutes | 896 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Craft Recordings

Billboard 200 – #15 (1960)

The re-release of iconic folk singer Joan Baez’s self-titled debut album. Recorded in the summer of 1960, Joan Baez’s first record introduced the world to the pure and soaring soprano of a then-19-year-old folk singer, who had recently come to prominence after the 1959 Newport Folk Festival.

Armed with just her voice, two guitars (the second guitar being played by Fred Hellerman of The Weavers) and two microphones, Baez injected new life into a series of traditional songs that she had chosen and arranged herself. In doing so, she placed herself at the forefront of the folk music revival that would take over America.
After Joan’s breakthrough at Newport in ’59, several major labels including Columbia Records courted her, but she chose to sign with the smaller independent Vanguard Records (which was acquired by Concord/Craft in 2015).
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Joan Baez – 1962 – In Concert Part 2 (1963/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:03 minutes | 645 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2 was a second installment of live material, recorded during Joan Baez’ concert tours of early 1963. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
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Joan Baez – Her Classic 1960s British EPs (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:14:10 minutes | 702 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

American folk singer and songwriter Joan Baez has performed publicly for fifty years, releasing more than thirty albums. Usually considered a folk singer, her music has ranged from rock and pop to country and gospel, and she has always been a passionate activist in favour of nonviolence, civil and human rights, and the environment. Famous for her early relationship with Bob Dylan, she is has recorded many of his songs, including Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word and Farewell Angelina, and has been an outstanding interpreter of the work of artists as varied as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Kris Kristofferson, The Beatles and Stevie Wonder. Joan Baez remains a musical force of nature of huge influence. She marched on the front line of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, shined a spotlight on the Free Speech Movement, took to the fields with Cesar Chavez, organized resistance to the Vietnam War, inspired Vaclav Havel in his fight for a Czech Republic, saluted the Dixie Chicks for their courage to protest the Iraq war, and stood with old friend Nelson Mandela in London’s Hyde Park as the world celebrated his 90th birthday. Her earliest recordings fed a host of traditional ballads into the rock vernacular, and this tradition of mutual mentoring that continues on her new album, Whistle Down The Wind – her first studio album in a decade, since 2008’s critically acclaimed Day After Tomorrow. The latest album was produced by three-time Grammy Award winner Joe Henry and brings together material by some of Joan Baez’s favourite composers, including Tom Waits, Mary Chapin Carpenter (The Things That We Are made Of), Josh Ritter and Eliza Gilkysen. There is a song by producer Joe Henry (the profound Civil War) and a moving version of Zoe Mulford’s The President Sang Amazing Grace, particularly sad and poignant in light of recent events in the USA. Joan Baez sings with great passion and her voice has become even more persuasive with the years. Highly recommended.
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Joan Baez – Gulf Winds (1976/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:11 minutes | 1008 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M

After recording for the folk label Vanguard for more than a decade, Baez moved to A&M. On this label debut, she maintained her interest in country music, recording in Nashville with some of the city’s session aces. She also continued to dedicate herself to radical politics, from her set opener “Prison Trilogy,” which pledged, “We’re gonna raze the prisons to the ground,” to the closer, John Lennon’s “Imagine.” In between were her call on Bob Dylan to return to protest music (“To Bobby”) and her sister Mimi Farina’s touching tribute to Janis Joplin, “In the Quiet Morning.” – William Ruhlmann
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Joan Baez – Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:07 minutes | 414 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square is the first album featuring Joan Baez. The album was recorded by Stephen Fassett in Boston, May 1959 with Joan Baez, Bill Wood and Ted Alevizos. Only six of the eighteen tracks on this album were solos by Baez. In 1963, an unauthorized reissue of the album was released on Squire Records as The Best of Joan Baez (minus the four tracks that did not contain Baez’ vocals), but was withdrawn after Baez took legal action against it (by which time the album had already made the top-fifty on the U.S. albums charts).
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Joan Baez – Diva Of The Folk Revival: Early Days And Late, Late, Nights Vol 2 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:27:40 minutes | 494 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Joan Chandos Baez (/baɪz/; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages.
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Joan Baez – Diamonds & Rust (1975/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:49 minutes | 933 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M

Joan Baez’s landmark Diamonds & Rust found her at the peak of her singer/songwriter skills, seemingly capable of transitioning out of ’60s protest mode into a more contemporary and commercially viable position. It was also around this time that she toured with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, and according to Baez’s memoirs, she wrote the songs for Gulf Winds during that tour. But Gulf Winds, her last A&M album, was a significant drop off and marked the beginning of what would be a steep commercial decline. Produced by David Kershenbaum, the album tries its best to bolster Baez with a timely ’70s studio sound, but for the most part it misses the mark. The songs just aren’t up to the task. “Sweeter for Me” sports a nice arppegiated piano by Baez and faintly harks to the melancholy brilliance of Diamonds & Rust, but, lyrically, most of the material is overwritten. The more stinging, faster-paced “O Brother!” is a more successful stab at a commercial sound, and Baez sings it with a bitter venom (you can’t help but speculate that the song refers to Dylan himself). The standout track on an otherwise forgettable album, though, is surely the title track, “Gulf Winds,” a ten-and-a-half-minute solo epic in the mold of her early work, just Joan and her acoustic guitar, brilliantly picked and sung, ironically demonstrating that, although Baez still had the talent, she couldn’t capitalize on the success of Diamonds and Rust and the times were passing her by. – Jim Esch
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