sign in sign up
<<
Home , Joan Baez, Ring Them Bells, Speaking of Dreams

fR424 PAGES 52-53-55_Layout 1 25/02/2019 22:54 Page 1

f 52 Baez Bows Out It’s six decades since she catapulted to attention as a teenage folk star, and now is bringing down the curtain. Liz Thomson catches up with the story.

t’s a beautiful early summer’s day in Bristol, the first British date in phase two of Joan Baez’s Fare I Thee Well tour that will bring down the curtain on a sixty-year career. She’d notched up almost a score of concerts in March 2018, including in Britain and Ireland, then taken a month off back home in California. Two dates, at the Royal Albert Hall, the following week were to be a final goodbye – but such has been the demand for tickets, in the UK and beyond, that the farewells are continuing way into 2019. Whistle Down the Wind, her first studio album in a decade, debuted on the Billboard chart at number 18 and was nominated for a Grammy. Will she finally play out with a gig at the where, in 1959, a star was born when she took the stage as the unannounced guest of Bob , singing Virgin Mary and We Are Crossing Jordan River? “I’m not thinking that far ahead,” she says, as she contemplates a bowl of pea and mint soup with a side of cheese and crusty bread in the decidedly unglamorous backstage surroundings of the Colston Hall. Baez has been a frequent performer at Newport and, in 2009, she joined her old friend for a duet of Diamonds And Rust, deservedly her most acclaimed song and one without which no Joan Baez concert would be complete. A spot in 2019 would be the perfect curtain call. I’ve followed Baez’s career since the late when I found Volume 2 in my sister’s record collection. I learned to play guitar from it – Barbara Allen, and Plaisir d’Amour already vaguely familiar to my 11-year-old ears. Soon I was hooked on her voice, exploring everything she’d ever recorded, and first saw her live in December 1971 at London’s Rainbow Theatre. Since then I’ve seen her scores of times, including two of the four concerts at ’s Bottom Line – the sessions, the 1995 album that provided a career relaunch and which I reported for Mojo. I’ve been privileged to spend time with her over the last 40 years and in 1984 she entrusted me with a press Photo: Dana Tynan call at Greenham Common, where women fR424 PAGES 52-53-55_Layout 1 25/02/2019 22:54 Page 2

53 f

were camped out in protest against the certified gold. In 2015, it was deemed “cul- her fingertips, which show more paint than government’s plans to install cruise mis- turally, historically, and aesthetically signif- thickened skin. But at 78, she is fit: “Shit siles. She was a legend without a label and icant” by the Library of Congress and happens and you stiffen and get knobby, although many people were asking, “Joan selected for inclusion in the National but it’s all right. That’s why I have Dirk who?” the visit received widespread Recording Registry. [Powell] here. I don’t want to do any gym- media coverage, in Britain and beyond – As music historian Arthur Levy points nastics on the guitar. I just keep it simple.” an indication of the respect accorded her out in his liner notes to the re-release, the In fact, her guitar playing has always as a spokeswoman on political issues. album is a “deceptively simple song cycle” been pretty nifty: a solo performer for so Civil rights, human rights, Vietnam, drawing on numbers from the folk, coun- many years, she is perforce a skilled instru- Latin America, Standing Rock: these and try and bluegrass traditions, among them mentalist, her intricate guitar work effec- many other concerns have always been as , a lullaby from the Bahamas, tively providing both lead and rhythm. Over important to Baez as her music. From the and El Preso Numero Nuevo, a tipping of the last 25 years she’s worked with various outset – indeed, long before her name was the hat to Baez’s paternal Mexican her- small bands and settled on Powell, who known even around Harvard Square – itage which still has a place in her stage plays pretty much anything stringed as well humanitarian concerns were a key ele- repertoire. Mary Hamilton and Henry Mar- as piano, with her son Gabriel Harris on per- ment in her life and they fitted well with tin were the first two of many Child Bal- cussion. Grace Stumberg, her guitar tech, . and Pete lads she would record, the former a Scot- adds bluesy vocal harmonies and gets a Seeger had long ago proved that. But by tish-Irish ballad that surely pleased her spot of her own as she builds a solo career. mother, also named Joan, who was the 1980s, the public’s taste in music had As to the voice, which the late New descended from the Dukes of Chandos changed. So too had the preoccupations York Times critic Robert Shelton famously (Chandos being passed down the family as of young people who enthusiastically described as “an achingly pure soprano”, a middle name). embraced the Me-Decade. As she acknowl- one which once conquered the coloratura edged in her memoir, And A Voice To Sing Joan Baez and the mighty handful of heights of the Villa-Lobos Aria from Bachi- With, Baez spent a long time in the wilder- folk albums that followed it – including anas Brasileiras No 5, it’s now a warm, ness. “The Seventies and Eighties were the two albums recorded live on campuses in smoky alto – deep topaz rather than years of silence and ashes,” she told me in the American South, where Baez was the bright-white diamond, and in its way more 1990. It required all her spiritual reserves first white artist to insist on integrated expressive, weathered by age and experi- “simply to get through a concert, because I audiences – had a significant influence on ence. Those early recordings are dramatic, didn’t understand why I was bothering.” to be sure, but Baez often relied on the European youth engaged somewhat and ethereal beauty of her voice to carry a inspired two songs, Warriors Of The Sun song from which she remained clinically and Children Of The Eighties, released on detached. She’s now musically and emo- albums that sank almost without trace. At tionally engaged. in July 1985, she was offered the Baez admits that it took time for her consolation prize of one song at 9am, the to acknowledge that what she calls her opening. Introduced by Jack “old Joanie voice” was gone forever and Nicholson, she sang , for a few years in the early part of this cen- segueing into an snatch of We tury concerts felt uncomfortable – for the Are The World, though she was not on the audience and, one sensed, for performer. record. She told the crowd, “this is your “It was difficult,” she agrees. “For and it’s long overdue.” instance, I didn’t make an album for ten Now all her albums have been re-mas- 1960s Joan years – it took me that long to accept it, tered and re-released and Baez has found embrace it actually. I like the noises that young musicians in America and beyond, came out on this album.” a new audience, thanks in part to her men- and not just on obvious folk revivalists like toring of young talent: Sharon Shannon, Fairport Convention and Pentangle. I remind her that when we talked in Sinead Lohan, , the Indigo Robert Plant and Jimmy Page first heard 1990, on the back of , Girls and , all now Babe I’m Gonna Leave You on In Concert, before her “third act” reinvention with established artists in their own right, are for example. The two In Concert albums Ring The Bells on manager Mark Spector’s among those who have shared stages with are the ultimate in “unplugged” and watch, she thought she had “maybe 10 her and all have recognised how much she while folk purists may regard them as too years” left but in retrospect we can see the has taught them, musically and practically, polished, folk song as art song if you like, Baez career was only at mid-point. She about life as a troubadour. Songwriters they remain milestones of recording histo- wanted, she told me then, to be able to do such as David Massengill, , ry. (A decade later, would “some big tours, including Eastern Europe” Diana Jones and Zoe Mulford regard her record Diamonds & Rust!) (the Wall had just come down) and she covering of their work as a benediction, as oes she ever listen to her back wanted, when the time came, to bow out way back when did a new kid on the catalogue? “Rarely, unless on a high, at a moment of her own choos- block named Bob there’s some reason. I might ing. Understandably, she did not want to Dylan. “Young folk singer types are always D run into something when I’m fizzle, to fade away. That tickets for Fare appreciative of whatever it was I did, trawling and I’m in awe of the Thee Well sold out within hours and that sometimes through their parents,” Baez early voice though I take no credit for it” – the tour has been extended is ample says now, between sips of soup. “I’ve had by which she means she sees it as “a gift”, demonstration that she got her wish. an influence on their lives, and generally her only task its use and maintenance. And Though she bravely ventured into that means politically as well as musically.” maintenance has become ever harder, as to sing for a city under siege, Whistle Down The Wind closes the cir- happens in older age. “When I asked my these past thirty years have been less overt- cle begun with Joan Baez, released in late first vocal coach when it would be time to ly political, both albums and concerts rebal- 1960. Reviewing that first album in the quit, he said your voice will tell you, and it’s anced in favour of pure music, the long Harvard Crimson, student John R Adler, been telling me. It’s these lengthy tours – raps that characterised her Seventies’ gigs now a distinguished neurosurgeon, wrote: they’re tough and I tend to treat everything dropped in favour of well-chosen songs “Joan Baez will not be a great big seller. as if I’m 35 years old.” She would like to be (Guthrie’s Deportees and Dylan’s With God English ballads are pretty esoteric stuff to able to emerge from retirement for the On Our Side as eloquent and contemporary most buyers. But the record is of undeni- occasional one-off but admits that once today as when they were written) or jokes. able quality, and has some stunning back home and painting (her new preoccu- Surprisingly, since Baez has form in this moments. It proves what many have been pation) the weeks of daily exercises and arena, there were walkouts at some Bush- mumbling into their coffee for some time: prep may be less appealing. And as the era American concerts. Recently, she and that Joan Baez can be, if she wants, the most amateur picker knows, the calluses have taken a knee (to Jimi Hen- very best in her field.” In fact, the album go, the fingers soften. “I was home until drix’s Star Spangled Banner) after the final spent three years in the US charts and was two nights ago,” Baez explains as I examine encore, a gesture which brought the house fR424 PAGES 52-53-55_Layout 1 25/02/2019 22:54 Page 3

55 f

down in New York City, the exuberant Joan Baez will always stand at the atmosphere heightened the night I was crossroads of music and social activism, an there by the presence of Bill and Hillary interpretive singer more than a songwrit- Clinton. As in the 1960s, she has taken to er, though her writing deserves more cred- the streets to protest against the innumer- it than even she is willing to give it: Gulf able iniquities of the Trump administration Winds (1976), her only entirely self- and a song, Nasty Man, went viral – just as penned album, is well worth exploring, as she was poised to be inducted in to the are the few songs released on Rare, Live & Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April 2017. Classic which were recorded with the That was surely an honour the young , whose own roots lie in folk Joan Baez would have refused. “I’m sure I and bluegrass. (There are more in the can, would have! I was such a snoot,” she though it’s not clear if they will ever be laughs heartily. “I’d have been appalled. released.) Diamonds And Rust she regards But it was fun, and you can look at it as a happy fluke. either way: ‘What’s she doing in the Hall of These days, Baez writes poetry but not Fame’ or ‘about time’. Accepting the songs, but her creative energies are over- award from , she said: “I'm whelmingly channelled into painting. She aware that I'm speaking to many young has always drawn: cartoons, line drawings, people who, without this induction into watercolours – and now acrylics. Last year the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, would have she had her first show in the Bay Area, its no clue who I am. My granddaughter had subject Mischief Makers, among them no clue who I was, until I took her back- Malala, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Vaclav stage at a Taylor Swift concert, where she Havel, who liked to talk to her about Photo: Pascal Saez got a selfie, an autograph, a T-shirt and Live in 2007 “making mischief”. The collection has been newfound respect for her grandmother.” bought by the Federated Indians of Graton More seriously, Baez spoke in the tra- matter to them. The whole conservative Rancheria for installation in the future dition of her folk forebears when she agenda has nothing to do with much Learning Center at Sonoma implored: “Let us together repeal and except self-service. Money, and you teach State University but, until the Center is replace brutality and make compassion a your kids to go out and make more ready, Mischief Makers will tour, probably priority. Together, let us build a bridge – a money. That’s all it is.” to , Paris and London. Unsurprising- ly, she’s not planning a -style great bridge, a beautiful bridge – to once aez was brought up with a very painting-by-numbers roll-out. “And I’m not again welcome the tired and the poor. different ethic. Both grandpar- launching whisky with my sculpting And we will pay for that bridge with our ents were ministers and her commitment.” B parents became . Her around it!” she laughs, referring to his new line of Heaven’s Door bourbon. “You gotta She regards this period as infinitely father, a noted physicist, was the co-inventor of the X-ray microscope hand it to him for living outside the box.” worse than the 1960s, with so many of the Not for Dylan, one imagines, the post-tour gains made in that tumultuous decade and a teacher who took science to devel- oping countries, including , where the decompression that Baez favours – helping endangered by the current president and out on a farm or, following the Gerdes Folk his followers. Action, she once famously family spent a year when Joan was ten, an experience that gave a particular piquan- City 25th anniversary celebration in New said, is “the antidote to despair” and she York, washing dishes in an Upper West Side still believes that to be the case. “It’s hard cy to the recent war. Social activism was part of the family DNA and when an aunt restaurant where David Massengill, with [in both America and Britain] but you whom she’d just performed, was supple- bash on regardless. We couldn’t have took her to see , thirteen-year- old Baez was hooked. Folk music, she has menting his income. “She posed for pic- scripted this, nobody could have scripted tures with all the staff!” this. Nobody could have imagined it.” said, was “like a vaccine, it took.” She’s not convinced that Trump is neces- At around the same time, a young Like anyone facing retirement, Joan sarily going to be dislodged. “People keep preacher named Martin Luther King visit- Baez is not quite sure how she’ll feel. “I saying ‘this’ll get him’ but I’m not sure ed her California high school. A few years will miss the gang, so we’re making the anything necessarily is going to get him later she was singing from the steps of the most of this trip. The halls are all filled up because everyone around him is support- Lincoln Memorial at the March on Wash- and it’s double the excitement of any ing him and they’re all such yellow, spine- ington when King delivered his most cele- tour. I can understand that someone says less people that, even though they know brated speech and over the next five years ‘shit, I’m gonna go back out’. It’s been a he’s defective – seriously defective – and worked with him in the South, singing golden time.” causes tremendous damage, it doesn’t wherever she was needed. joanbaez.com F

Anti-Vietnam War March, London 1965. Front row Mark Feld (later Bolan), , Joan Baez, , Vanessa Redgrave, Alex Campbell