24. Joan Baez - Joan Baez (1960)




















Track Listing

1. Silver Dagger
2. East Virginia
3. Fare Thee Well (Or Then Thousand Miles)
4. House Of The Rising Sun
5. All My Trials
6. Wildwood Flower
7. Donna Donna
8. John Riley
9. Rake and Rambling Boy
10. Little Moses
11. Mary Hamilton
12. Henry Martin
13. El Preso Numero Nueve

Review

Yay! The Sixties, free love, lack of belief in shaving and shit! And who better to start this new decade than the first lady of flower power herself, Joan Baez. No one! That's who!

Ok, this is a great album and also greatly influential; later on when Bob Dylan met Baez he was in complete awe of her. It is not hard to see why this would happen, in fact what Baez does in this album is really not that complicated, it is not an album of political activism or calling for social change. It is an album of folk songs, some of them quite well known, yet she takes those songs from the domain of the hickier performers, like the Louvin Brothers or Marty Robbins and strips it down to what sounds like a purer, more ethereal sound of a girl and her guitar.

In this stripping down of music are both her greatest merits and biggest downfalls. It is indeed different and extremely influential stuff, but it might just have become too influential, in the way that she sounds like the stereotypical folk singer girl with her guitar... you know like a Phoebe from Friends with a good voice and good lyrics. Baez of course did it first, and her voice is definitely unique, but in 2006 you can't help but feel that this has been parodied to death.

But hey, she has a great voice, and it is a great album, both lyrically and in terms of sound, not only of her voice but also of her guitar playing which is a great thing. So if you like this kind of stuff buy it from the US or UK.

Track Highlights

1. Silver Dagger
2. Donna Donna
3. John Riley
4. All My Trials

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

This woman distorts my speakers in her fucking high notes. Not nice.

Capsule review: Hippie chick...bit boring.