Joan Baez
New Theatre, Oxford
An almost reverential hush descends on Oxford’s New Theatre as an audience of a certain maturity awaits Joan Baez’s appearance. This does not seem misplaced. After all, in the folk music pantheon, Baez is queen, if not quite God. And, after 51 years of tuning her guitar, no one can say she has not earned the respect afforded to her. When she walks on stage, with a four-strong touring band, whose homophony of plucked instruments – mandolin, mandola, guitars and bass, provides ample, yet subtle accompaniment to their mistress, Baez is looking remarkably trim, although it’s difficult to picture her with her trademark tresses, now long gone.
Thankfully, it is immediately clear that Baez’s other trademark – her achingly clear voice – remains, although with the passing of decades she is now more mezzo than soprano. There is a tangible relaxation among the audience once Baez opens her mouth to sing old favourite “Lily of the West”.
This is followed by “God is God”, a song composed by American Blues legend Steve Earle for The Day After Tomorrow, her most recent studio album. It is a song about “recovery” and a “power greater than yourself”, Baez tells the audience. She adds that, when you have been around as long as she has, “a power greater than yourself could just as easily be a teapot”.
Songs from Baez’ early days on the Vanguard record label, “Farewell Angelina” and “The Ballad of Joe Hill”, are balanced with newer material, including the plaintive “Just the Way you Are”, on which Joan duets with her musical director.
For a woman who has always had much more to sing than she has to say – why waste the gift she has been given on mere speech? –Baez is in a chatty mood, name-checking among others, The Beatles, Johnny Cash (“I had such a huge crush on him”), Donovan and, of course, Bob Dylan, whom Joan Baez parodies brilliantly on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”.
Dylan’s “Forever Young” is another highlight in an evening of highlights. While the arrangement may have changed over the decades to allow for the changes in Baez’s voice, if it is possible, the song has grown in poignancy as Baez has aged. She sings it alone on stage while her band takes a well-earned rest.
“La Llorona” or “Weeping Woman”, a song I have only previously heard sung by another Mexican-American singer, Tish Hinojosa, La Llorona, or ‘Weeping Woman’ is included in Baez’s live repertoire for the first time. Astonishingly, after five decades, “An Evening with Joan Baez” is still a work in progress.
If anything, Baez seems more comfortable with her audience now than at any other stage in her illustrious career and is delighted to fill in a few gaps during her two encores. “Diamonds and Rust”, a Dylan-inspired lament, and “The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down”, Baez’ sole Billboard top 10 hit, leave the audience sated – at least for now.
Over the years, Baez’ voice has been heard as much in protest as it has in celebration. It has cheered Bobby Kennedy, chided the architects of the Vietnam War, denounced Indira Gandhi and roused a sleeping Martin Luther King who woke late for a preaching engagement to declare: “I hear an angel in my room”. Hers truly is an angelic voice and, as long as Baez sings, she will never have to go far to find an audience.
Cary Gee
