I just discovered Joan Baez

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: TinkerandCrab
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 10:36 PM

Oops... didn't mean to make people feel old... I more meant it as that I sort of identified with Amy, the thread-starter... when I got into Joan I was about 16 and the music was recorded way before my time, and it's sort of a special experience... everyone around you is listening to stuff like hip-hop or nine-inch nails, and you have this different thing that's all your own. It's an "outsider" experience... kind of a very different experience from what those of you who lived through the 1960's revival era firsthand have known... at least that music was *sorta* popular at that time... now, for people of my age and younger, it's practically verboten...

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Folkie101
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 10:16 PM

Amy,

do you sing and/or play the guitar? if so, there's the Joan Baez songbook printed in 1966 or so. it features all the traditional songs from her folk recordings. it gives you all the chords she used, and even gives capo placements for those using a capo. her bio "And A Voice To Sing With" takes you inside her life experiences. she tells her story in a way to make you feel you are there as it's unfolding. one day, i was on the hunt for Joan's albums in a thrift store. when i told the owners wife how much i loved JB and was teaching myself guitar, she went in the back and gave me several of Joan's 60's recordings! it was a day i will never forget. she said she heard Joan sing (in San Francisco)in the early 60's as Joan was starting her career. she also said Joan came out without introduction, in a sleeveless dress and was barefoot. keep in mind very few people knew of her at the time. she said Joan started with "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Maidens". according to her, when Joan started to sing, you could have heard a pin drop. she said everyone sat there totally stunned by her incredible voice.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 09:56 PM

"the bootleg one with Bill Wood and Ted Alevizios"
      I bought it at the PX at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in the summer of 1965. God knows how many times I've played it.

    And it cracks me up a little, as well as delights me, to hear

"Isn't it great when a young person discovers someone like Joan for the first time?"
    and then learn that it was said by someone well under half my age!

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: TinkerandCrab
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 09:32 PM

Isn't it great when a young person discovers someone like Joan for the first time?

I am another one who plundered my father's Joan-heavy LP collection.... a few years later, I found "Joan Baez's First Album" (the bootleg one with Bill Wood and Ted Alevizios) for $1.00 in a used record shop and felt rich. Her version of "Virgin Mary Had One Son" on that album is positively breathtaking... I have fond memories of lying in bed and playing that record, listening in the dark... that echo made it so lovely and sacred-sounding.

Ditto to whoever listed "Long Black Veil" as one of their favorites. I also love: Silver Dagger, In The Pines, The Banks of the Ohio, Black Is The Color, Four-Letter Word, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue; Jack-A-Roe, Once I Had A Sweetheart, Streets of Laredo... and oh, so many more! I could listen to her guitar-playing forever...

Sorry, this post is pretty gushy and pointless... I just wanted to share the love. I've been fortunate to see Joan in concert several times, as she pays a visit to Staten Island almost once a year (she was born here, although spent almost no time). I particularly remember enjoying her live rendition of Flora (aka Lily Of The West), which I first heard by PP&M on vinyl (another swipe from Dad!) :^)

--Catherine, who is 30 but really much older inside...

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: kendall
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 08:10 PM

Oh Joanie, she still doesn't know I'm alive. sigh.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: paddymac
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 07:54 PM

She was one of the greats, to be sure. She performed her in Tallahassee about 10 years ago, and did a rendition of "Carrickfergus" that was simply incredible. I have heard many fine renditions by other performers, but the one I heard that night still stands out as the finest. I don't know if she ever recorded it or not.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 06:29 PM

Amy,

How I envy you! You are only at the beginning of your great adventure. I wish you many years of health to compound your interest (pun intended) in the musics of your choice.

I first heard a very young barefoot waif named Joan Baez in 1959 (I think) when she was opening the show for a fellow named Bob Gibson at a folk club called the GATE OF HORN in Chicago. Her voice hit us all who were in that audience then just like you said it struck you. ---- Bob Gibson mostly played banjo in those days---but there was one song that he was doing with a big 12-string guitar. That song was "Matty Groves" --- and that is how Joan learned the song. Bob Gibson's dramatic arrangement on guitar was the one Joan used----and the one you mention admiring in your first post.

You won't hear any modern songs that can describe other times and places like the graphic imagery found in the ballads (story songs) put down and remembered for us by all the unknown singers who passed their work to us via the long trail of the oral tradition. It is a real treasure hunt---one that may actually allow you to find your own personal Grail. Go for it, and enjoy!

You have found a real time machine...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Maryrrf
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:53 PM

Amy,
I was just talking to somebody about how I got hooked on folk music and I mentioned it probably started when I was in Junior High School and I heard that album with Joan Baez singing House Carpenter and Mattie Groves. I too love Joan's early material (I wish she'd do some more all traditional albums again). Also love her guitar picking style - always just right and never overpowering - just enough to enhance and frame the song. Yes, those old album deserve an honored place in anyone's folk music collection. Terry I'm afraid I was one of those Joan Baez wannabees but had a contralto voice - never could manage her soprano!

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:51 PM

Saw her live for the first time last October. She's still quite the activist, and her voice is as strong as ever (although, thankfully she has toned down that vibrato a bit).

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: akenaton
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:49 PM

Shouldn't be too difficult!

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:42 PM

Back in the sixties , J B was so popular there was serious problem in UK clubs with ALL (or at least ,too many ) girl singers trying to sound like her . Now they all try to sound like Kate Rusby !

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Jim McLean
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:27 PM

bobad mentions 'Positively 4th Street' by David Hajdu. My wife's (Alison Chapman McLean) pictures of Dylan etc., were printed in that book without credits or recognition. When Hajdu was contacted he admitted the error and promised to pay her £100. That was about a year ago. He sent £50 and pleaded poverty and to date she has received nothing more.
I just thought I'd mention it.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: ranger1
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:23 PM

My first big concert was going to see Joan Baez with my mom, about 20 years ago. I'd grown up listening to her albums and when I moved out on my own, I will admit to swiping my mom's collection of Joan's LPs.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: greg stephens
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:13 PM

Those were the days. What a treat to start on all tha afresh. Good luck. I always liked "Long Black Veil"

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: bobad
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:01 PM

Amy, check out the book "Positively 4th. Street" by David Hajdu, it's a pretty informative bio of Joan her sister Mimi and Mimi's husband Richard Farina and Bob Dylan - a good read.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 05:00 PM

Listen/look at Joan on the Dylan documentary, "No Direction Home," and read her two autobiographies, "Daybreak" and "And a Voice to Sing With" to learn more about this remarkable woman firsthand.

Elmer

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: John O'L
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 04:54 PM

I too found an old double record set of hers in a junk store for a dollar a couple of weeks ago, brought it home and introduced my 11-year old daughter to her. My daughter has recently started having voice lessons and I can hear her practice improving since listening to Joan's beautiful voice.

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Folkie101
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 04:47 PM

hello Amy,

there are several Mudcat threads discussing Joan Baez that will interest you. she has been a favorite of mine for some time. one thread discusses her guitar style (i'm impressed with her guitar skills too). if you ever get a chance to hear her live, please go! in the shows i've seen, she's performed the traditional songs with her guitar. she brought tears to my eyes. i hope Very Early Joan is one of the albums you have. you can tell even then she would go on to be a folk treasure imho. happy discovering!

Folkie

Subject: RE: I just discovered Joan Baez
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 04:27 PM

Better late than never!

Subject: I just discovered Joan Baez!
From: GUEST,Amy in Boston
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 04:25 PM

I found several of Joan Baez's albums from the early sixties in an old record store bin. I'd heard of her, but, had never actually heard her sing. That "voice"! And her guitar playing is "very impressive" to my ears. Matty Groves is my favorite of the songs she sings. It's hard to tell if she's strumming or fingerpicking in that song. I think a little of both. Anyway, it's great to discover a great talent. I'm going to read everything I can get my hands on about her, and purchase the rest of her sixties folk traditional material. Just thought I'd share.

Peace to all,
Amy