![]() Her repertoire grew to include songs by Jacques Brel, Lennon-McCartney, Johnny Cash and his Nashville peers including Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury, South American composer Violeta Para and more. Day After Tomorrow and Whistle Down The Wind both underscore Joan’s long history of mutual mentoring, introducing songs by artists and songwriters, known and unknown, a hallmark of her recordings and performances ever since the turbulent 1960s.Įarly on, she focused awareness on songwriters ranging from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Richard Fariña, Leonard Cohen, and Tim Hardin, among others. Whistle Down The Wind succeeds 2008’s critically acclaimed, Grammy®-nominated Day After Tomorrow, produced by Steve Earle, the release of which coincided with the 50th anniver¬sa¬ry of Joan’s first performances at Club 47. “I work best with musicians who are as willing as I am to wing it, and he assembled a group of players who did just that.” “We both work fast and were musically on the same wavelength,” Joan says. ![]() Henry and Baez recorded Whistle Down The Wind in Los Angeles over ten days, inventing every song virtually from scratch with a core band including John Smith and Mark Golden¬berg (acoustic guitars) Greg Leisz (acoustic guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, and Weissenborn) Tyler Chester and Patrick Warren (keys) bassist David Piltch and drummer Jay Bellerose. Henry’s composition “Civil War” explores how conflict brings down individuals and society, “a swelling of emotions put to music,” declares Joan. Whistle Down The Wind was produced by three-time Grammy Award®-winner Joe Henry (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint, and others). A 440-year old manuscript of an American rebel imprisoned by the British in our Revolutionary War is the source of “I Wish The Wars Were All Over,” adapted by balladeer Tim Erickson. Similarly, when Joan heard Zoe Mulford sing “The President Sang Amazing Grace” (from her album Small Brown Birds) live on the Bay Area’s community-supported Pacifica radio station KPFA, it was a passionate reminder of President Obama’s effort to heal the congregation in a Charlotte church in June 2015. ![]() Ritter’s “Silver Blade” has been described by Joan as “a bookend to ‘Silver Dagger’ at the end of this nearly sixty-year career … like something I would have picked up in Club 47 when I was 18.”Īlways a lightning rod for talented songwriters, Joan considers the ecological disasters ahead in “Another World” by Anohni (formerly of Antony and the Johnsons), a song whose beauty and darkness resonate deeply. Whistle Down The Wind, Joan’s first new studio album in a decade, gathers material by some of her favorite composers, from Tom Waits (“Whistle Down The Wind,” “Last Leaf”) and Josh Ritter (“Be Of Good Heart,” “Silver Blade”), to Eliza Gilkyson (“The Great Correction”) and Mary Chapin Carpenter (“The Things That We Are Made Of”). But we have to do our work for a just and loving society whether the end comes tomorrow or whether we are still holding fast for generations to come.” Commenting on the song “I Wish The Wars Were All Over,” from her new album Whistle Down The Wind, Joan asks, “Will a better world come? I don’t know. Her mission has never wavered in sixty years. ![]() She remains a musical force of nature, and an artist of incalculable influence. “I welcome the oppor¬tun¬ity to share this new music as well as longtime favorites with my audiences around the world.” “I’m looking forward to being on the road with a beautiful new album about which I am truly proud,” she said. Six decades after becoming a regular on the coffee house scene that was emerging around Club 47 in Cambridge, MA, Joan Baez determined that “2018 will be my last year of formal extended touring.” With her 2017 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction topping off a lifetime of awards and honors for her recordings and human rights achievements around the globe, the symmetry of Joan’s decision reverberates.
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