Joan Baez, Yet Again, Sings Bob Dylan On Any Day Now.

The Good: Good vocals, Great lyrics, Good duration, Generally decent duration.
The Bad: A few less-worthwhile tracks.
The Basics: A strong collection of covers of Bob Dylan songs, Any Day Now finds Joan Baez giving new life to some of his more obscure folk works!


Whenever I review a new (to me) musical artist and immerse myself in their works for the month, I tend to learn a lot. I grew up listening to Joan Baez mostly on car trips and around the house as she was one of my father’s favorite musical artists. I’m not sure yet how I feel about her works because the more I listen to her, the more I discover how much she is a performer instead of an artist who is constantly producing her own works. This was something of a shock to me as I listened to Any Day Now, which is Joan Baez singing a load of Bob Dylan songs.

Baez does something quite well, though, with the remastering of the old album: Any Day Now is presented on a single c.d. and it is appropriate because it easily fit there without wasting a second c.d. just to maintain the historic presence of the works on two physical albums. Remastered in stereo, Any Day Now is one of the best Joan Baez albums, only it is not truly much of her own work. Instead, Any Day Now is Joan Baez singing the works of Bob Dylan, and not the usual ones which Baez is associated (there’s no “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” on this one!).

With sixteen songs occupying 64:25, Any Day Now is a good use of the c.d. medium. While Bob Dylan wrote all of the songs, Joan Baez presents them on her own (vocally). She plays guitar on most every track as well. As one of Baez’s earlier studio albums, she was not involved in the production of the work. Given how much the works on this album sound like how she performs similar songs on later “live” albums, it is hard to argue that this is not the sound she intended.

Joan Baez is pretty much one woman with a guitar on Any Day Now. She is backed with minimal percussion and bass on songs like “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” and “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word.” On songs like “Dear Landlord,” the instrumentals are stripped back some and on songs like “I Pity The Poor Immigrant,” the guitars are so subdued compared to the vocals that the tune is hard to recall, even after multiple listens to the album. That said, the music is adequate for the purpose. Folk music is usually more about telling a musical story and on Any Day Now, Baez does that quite well.

Joan Baez is an impressive vocalist. While she is a soprano on many songs – clearly differentiating herself from the vocals of Bob Dylan – she goes lower on songs like “North County Blues.” Her ability to go into the lowest range of the alto register (and sometimes even lower) gives her a soulful sound that allows her to easily carry the mood and tenor of the songs that call for it. As well, Baez has amazing lung capacity, which makes songs like “One Too Many Mornings” a real treat to listen to. She is able to be expressive even as she holds notes and goes up scales on songs like “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”

Largely, the songs on Any Day Now are slow, long ballads performed by Joan Baez. The album has a sad, contemplative feel to it and most of the songs are musical storysongs that either have characters and protagonists or truly delve into the depths of a vital human emotion. The real exceptions to this are “Drifter’s Escape” and “Walkin’ Down The Line,” which are more upbeat and have recognizable drum sections which makes them sound far more active than the songs on the rest of the album.

As for the lyrics, Dylan wrote them, so they are pretty wonderful. Take, for example, “Dear Landlord.” On that song, Dylan – though Baez in this case – picks up the cause of social justice for housing by embodying a person who is set to be evicted. With Baez’s voice, Dylan masterfully expresses “Dear landlord / Please don’t put a price on my soul / My burden is heavy / My dreams are beyond control / When that steamboat whistle blows / I’m gonna give you all I got to give . . . Please don’t dismiss my case / I’m not about to argue / I’m not about to move to no other place / Now, each of us has his own special gift / And you know this was meant to be true / And if you don’t underestimate me / I won’t underestimate you” (“Dear Landlord”). To make a plea for the right to stay in a place is hard to do musically, but they do it perfectly on that song.

Ultimately, the album is largely cohesive and a great one for fans of folk music, so long as they like classic folk and not the newer folk-rock. Any Day Now has a very old feel to it and it is impressive how relevant its themes remain today as a result!

The best track is “I Pity The Poor Immigrant,” the low point is the unmemorable “The Walls Of Redwing.”

For other works by Joan Baez, please check out my reviews of:
The First 10 Years
Hits: Greatest And Others
Rare, Live And Classic
Baez Sings Dylan
Ring Them Bells

8/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Joan Baez Hits: Greatest And Others Is An Eclectic Mix Of Other People’s Hits

The Good: Good variations, Interesting song choices, Good lyrics
The Bad: SHORT!
The Basics: An interesting album that is incredibly short and generally not made up of the most recognizable or interesting works by Joan Baez, Hits: Greatest And Others is worth the listen.


It is rare that I actually recommend a short album that makes poor use of the c.d. medium. In fact, it is even more rare that I do it for a vintage album, given my strong belief that artists re-releasing old LPs and cassettes on the updated medium ought to double up (oftentimes, that is more than possible). So, even though I only consider Hits: Greatest And Others by Joan Baez an average album, the fact that I recommend it ought to be a ringing endorsement for the work.

Hits: Greatest And Others is a small collection from 1973 of Joan Baez covers (save “Blessed Are . . .”) which are fairly unlikely songs for the Folk diva. Baez takes popular (“Eleanor Rigby”) and Folk (“I Pity The Poor Immigrant”) songs and gives them her own twist on Hits: Greatest And Others. Some of the song selections are obvious (ooh, a folk cover of “Let It Be!”) but others are positively inspired, like Baez covering the Simon & Garfunkel song “Dangling Conversation.” But more than anything else, Hits: Greatest And Others is a series of interesting musical choices largely presented in different ways from the originals, making it a decent experience for anyone who likes Joan Baez or different takes on popular music.

With only eleven songs occupying just over half an hour, the biggest strike against Hits: Greatest And Others (other than the name being a complete misnomer – none of these were Joan Baez’s greatest hits!) is that it is dreadfully short. The album could easily have been paired up with another from the same time period, as they were all about that short and as a compilation, it is not like it has a huge “album cohesion” feel to it anyway. As it stands, Baez lent her writing talents only to “Blessed Are . . .” but none of the other tracks. Joan Baez provides all of the lead vocals and she plays guitar on some of the tracks. She was not involved in the production of the album.

Hits: Greatest And Others features an eclectic mix of songs and it is aurally interesting. Baez does a very traditional cover of “Eleanor Rigby” and “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word,” but she ups the tempo on “Let It Be” and plays her guitar with an upbeat energy that changes the song and makes it her own. “Heaven Help Us All” has Baez backed with so many instruments that it has an orchestral sound to it, which is very atypical for Baez. “Dangling Conversation” has more rich guitarwork than the original Simon & Garfunkel theme, but it still sounds very much like the original. For the most part, Joan Baez shows respect to the original works, though I have never heard the original version of “Help Me Make It Through The Night” for comparison.

That said, Joan Baez has a very distinctive voice and many of the songs she is covering were originally performed by men. Her soprano voice is rich, full and appropriately high. She infuses “The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” with a Country twang and her vocals on “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” are vastly more clear than Dylan’s original ones. On this album, Baez tends to stay mostly in her soprano range, only seldom going into her more alto register on songs like "Blessed Are . . ." The result is an album that is vocally strong, but monotonous. More than anything else, though Baez has a clarity to her voice that is distinct and melodic. Outside "Eleanor Rigby," the songs are generally sung as slow, drawn-out ballads so there is a homogenous quality to many of the songs.

Thematically, Hits: Greatest And Others is very much a folk album. There are musical storysongs which mix characters and themes (like "Eleanor Rigby" does with loneliness) and social commentary songs. The Dylan song "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" explores the persecution of the immigrant well in ways that few outside the Folk genre ever truly do. In the classic Folk tradition, the album also includes a historical ballad in the form of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," which is a Joan Baez standard on not just this collection.

As for the writing, given that only "Blessed Are . . ." is a Joan Baez song, her songwriting only comes under scrutiny on that song. The concept is an interesting one, exploring nomads in both geography and interpersonal relationships with the metaphor of one way tickets. When she sings "For you and I are one way ticket holders / On a one way street / Which lies across a golden valley / Where the waters of joy and hope run deep. / So if you pass the parents weeping / Of the young ones who have died, / Take them to your warmth and keeping / For blessed are the tears they cried / And many were the years they tried. / Take them to that valley wide / And let their souls be pacified" ("Blessed Are. . .") she makes a poignant statement about life. Baez is a talented poet and her ability to write strong comparisons sets her apart.

An adequate collection of songs that are more poppy than Joan Baez's usual fare, Hits: Greatest And Others is an interesting diversion for fans of Joan Baez, pop and folk music, though it leaves one wishing there was far more to it.

The best song on the album is "Let It Be," the low point is "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz."

For other works by Joan Baez, please check out my reviews of:
The First Ten Years
Rare, Live And Classic
Baez Sings Dylan
Ring Them Bells

5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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Rare, Live And Classic Is Going To Stay That Way For All But The Die-hards!

The Good: Good vocals, Some moments of creativity
The Bad: A lot of tracks that are not up to par.
The Basics: A disappointing collection of musical bits from the career of Joan Baez, Rare, Live And Uncut makes a great argument for discrimination in what is released by a musical artist.


Sometimes, I like to truly delve into a boxed set and explore all that it has to offer and relate that experience to my readers. I did that, for example, with the Bob Dylan boxed set Biograph and with the Peter, Paul And Mary anthology Carry It On. Yes, it seems the only time I get in the multidisc boxed sets are when they are for Folk artists . . . anyway, I cannot recall one I wanted to write about less than the Joan Baez boxed set Rare, Live and Classic. Joan Baez was my August Artist Of The Month and I suspect I enjoyed the booklet more than the three discs of music.

So, in a rarity for me, here’s a short review of a big product and what it boils down to is that Rare, Live And Classic is a novelty item for the most obsessed Joan Baez fans only. The three-disc set is packed with obscure outtakes, songs and dialogue clips which replay terribly poorly and are pretty much only for those who simply are looking for a Joan Baez album. Instead, this set is for the academics and those with far too much money in their wallet. It is not a cohesive collection and some of the tracks are little more than outtakes and for some, the improvisations do not work nearly as well as the artist might have intended.

With sixty tracks spread over three c.d.s and occupying over three hours of music, Rare, Live and Classic is a disappointing anthology of music, much of which is simply performed by Joan Baez with other folk singers. Of the sixty songs, she only wrote ten and arranged another eighteen from classical folk songs. Despite a pretty stunning number of collaborations – eighteen of the songs are duets or trios – most of the lead vocals on this set are performed by Joan Baez. She also plays her guitar on virtually every track. Joan Baez was interviewed for the booklet that comes with this three-disc set.

Rare, Live And Classic features a lot of Folk music, which is pretty much Joan Baez (and often a friend) on her guitar. The songs are not musically imaginative and for several of the classic Folk songs that Baez arranged, they sound like what I’ve always heard them as, so her reinventions of them – like “Scarlet Ribbons” and “We Are Crossing Jordan” – have largely become the standards for how the songs are performed by folk singer. Most of the songs are very simple songs, so they may be easily learned and the musical range of them is pretty much expressed through a lone guitar. Songs like “House Of The Rising Sun” have a much more stripped-down sound than the later, popular music version of the same song.

Even so, Rare, Live And Classic is musically fairly unimaginative. Baez presents the Janis Ian song “Jesse” with little musical differentiation between hers and the original. And some of the songs are little more than outtakes. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” is presented with almost no musical accompaniment and “Amazing Grace” is the same way. What makes “Amazing Grace” fail so spectacularly is the fact that Baez’s concert recording of it guts any emotional resonance the song might have. Baez leads the audience in it, speeding through each line almost as a spoken word, before singing the same line with the audience. The problem is, she seems to keep about the same tempo as a traditional version of it, so the spoken portions are sped through annoyingly and with equal annoyance the listener hears the condensed up-tempo version of the same line sung almost as amelodically.

This brings us to the vocals. Joan Baez largely sings with clear, crisp vocal performances that can bring a tear to the eyes of the listeners. Her version of “Forever Young” has a sad, sweet quality to it that accents Bob Dylan’s lines perfectly. Baez largely stays in the alto and soprano registers and she is a master of both with a fair ability to leap between the two or traverse through them as needed.

But Rare, Live And Classic is not the best series of examples of her vocals, either. She stumbles through “Auctioneer” with Bill Wood and the duets with Bob Dylan “Troubled And I Don’t Know Why” and “Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind” are both vocally sloppy. The discs are filled with similar songs where Baez is not performing up to snuff and many of her lines are frequently obscured as she or her vocal partner makes a flub.

Ultimately, that’s all the energy I have to write about this boxed set. It is big, bulky and the notes on each song are usually more interesting than the songs themselves. Unless one has a high tolerance for watching things like gag reels over and over again, Rare, Live And Classic is not the album collection for you: frequently that is all this collection of cuts from different times in Joan Baez’s life actually is.

For other works by Joan Baez, please check out my reviews of:
The First Ten Years
Baez Sings Dylan
Ring Them Bells

3/10

For other music reviews, be sure to check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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My Last Artist Of The Month (Before I Went Solo) Was Joan Baez: The First 10 Years!

The Good: Soulful vocals, Good duration
The Bad: Bland instrumental accompaniment, “live” conceits.
The Basics: A very average compilation, The First Ten Years by Joan Baez is a good entry into Folk music for those who do not know the powerful singer’s works.


When August came, I found myself on the road in Las Vegas and, though I didn’t know it at the time, writing my last reviews for the website I used to review for. On that trip, I was listening to folk music (much to my wife’s chagrin), which is usually pretty wonderful travel music in my book. My wife was not at all thrilled when our annual Las Vegas trip coincided with Joan Baez being my August Artist Of the Month and, truth be told, had it not been for the delay in getting in Pet Shop Boys albums two months ago, she would not be suffering now. As it is, I grew up listening to Joan Baez (and other Folk artists) on long car rides, so this is much more familiar to me than to my wife. I’ve had a few Joan Baez albums pass my way since I became a reviewer, like Baez Sings Dylan (click here for my review) and Ring Them Bells (click here for my review) and I have generally enjoyed what I have heard from Baez. With the compilation album The First 10 Years, I generally like what I am hearing, though I wish there were more consistency in the album.

By that, I mean that The First 10 Years is culled from studio albums and “live” albums and when the works from the “live” albums come up there are the annoying conceits of the audience cheering and the like and I can live without that. Moreover, “live” Joan Baez differs remarkably little from “studio” Baez, so the point of including the applause and cheers is lost on me. But more than anything else, with The First 10 Years, I am hearing a musical simplicity in the works of Joan Baez that replays less well than from many other Folk artists I have listened to. For sure, Folk is supposed to be easy to play and teach to other people, but the guitarwork is frequently unimaginative on The First 10 Years, making it a tougher sell than contemporary Folk artists.

With eighteen tracks occupying exactly seventy minutes on a single c.d., The First 10 Years is a tribute to the early career of Joan Baez as a Folk performer. I was surprised by how limited her creative control on the album actually was: she only wrote a single song (“Sweet Sir Galahad”) and she was not involved in the production of the album. Baez does perform all of the lead vocals and she plays the guitar on every track.

Instrumentally, The First 10 Years is a very stark album. Virtually every song has Baez presenting music with her guitar and minimal (if any) percussion. The result is that each song has the force and resonance of a single woman sitting before a campfire on the prairie singing to herself with little power or sense of inspiration. Indeed, it is only truly on “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” that Baez breaks out with the guitar enough that the melody is actually memorable and powerful. She plucks through other Dylan songs, like “With God On Our Side” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” with such quiet guitarwork that her voice drowns out her instrumental accompaniment and the guitar does not actually establish the tune. The result is a number of songs, including slower ballads like “Manha de Carnival,” where the guitar leads into the vocals and might punctuate the song, but does little else for the listener (I’m sure it helped Baez keep time while performing, though).

Baez makes up for the lack of anything impressive in the instrumental accompaniment with her vocals. Baez has an awesome soprano voice that is perfectly in the higher registers for pitch and has amazing abilities as far as lung capacity goes. For example, “If I Knew” is a fairly unremarkable song from the guitar strumming, but Baez sings high and long and the melody instantly resonates because of how technically impressive her vocals are. While she articulates exceptionally while going high on songs like “With God On Our Side,” she occasionally takes hitting the high (or shrill) note over enunciating. Largely, though, she has excellent pitch and a voice that can sing soulfully, slow and clear.

Like most Folk singers, Joan Baez sings songs that are essentially musical storysongs, songs that frequently feature characters, imagery and plot points. Because the only song on the album she wrote was “Sweet Sir Galahad,” it seems fair to look at that song. On Baez’s original song, she tells the story of love and bittersweet loss with the lines “Sweet Sir Galahad / Came in through the window / In the night when the moon was in the yard. / He took her hand in his / And shook the long hair / From his neck and he told her / She'd been working much too hard. / It was true that ever since the day / Her crazy man had passed away / To the land of poet's pride, / She laughed and talked alot (sic) / With new people on the block / But always at evening time she cried. / And here's to the dawn of their days” (“Sweet Sir Galahad”). She makes a very linear narrative remarkably musical and she does it without using a lot of obvious rhymes or imagery that it overly done in Folk music.

What Baez is largely known for are her social songs and she covers a number of Dylan songs which appear on The First 10 Years. When Baez sings “Oh the history books tell it / They tell it so well / The cavalries charged / The Indians fell / The cavalries charged / The Indians died/ Oh the country was young / With God on its side. / The Spanish-American / War had its day / And the Civil War too / Was soon laid away / And the names of the heroes / I's made to memorize / With guns on their hands / And God on their side” (“With God On Our Side”) the lines are more clearly enunciated than when Dylan sings them (on many of his recordings). Thus, she carries the message farther than he did and the song resonates with a disturbing quality that it is supposed to possess.

Ultimately, there are a ton of Joan Baez compilation albums on the market and I weakly recommend The First 10 Years on the assumption that some of the others are better. This is a very average compilation and it left me enthusiastic to hear what else Baez has done.

The best song is “With God On Our Side,” the low point is the unmemorable “Te Ador.”

For other works by strong female artists, please check out my reviews of:
The Honesty Room - Dar Williams
Left Of The Middle - Natalie Imbruglia
One Cell In The Sea - A Fine Frenzy

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Baez Covers Dylan With A Voice And Presentation That (Mostly) Improves On The Source Material!

The Good: Great songs, Great voice, Some beautiful performances
The Bad: Some musical mismatches, Nothing not available elsewhere
The Basics: A compilation that resurrects Baez's early covers of Bob Dylan-written tracks offers satisfaction to anyone who likes folk-rock music!


I've periodically go on a Bob Dylan kick. Some time ago, I came to realize that for all the songs I had heard covered that were Dylan tracks, I knew very few of his songs as presented by the artist himself. Indeed, growing up as a child of a lover of folk-rock music I heard surprisingly little of Bob Dylan's original songs as presented by him. Instead, most of the songs I heard that were Dylan tracks were probably the coversongs performed by Joan Baez. It is for people like me - or anyone who wants a woman's take on Dylan's lyrics - that the Baez Sings Dylan compilation was made for!

With twenty tracks totaling over seventy-three minutes of music, Baez Sings Dylan is a collection of songs written by Bob Dylan that Joan Baez covers. These tracks are culled from four Joan Baez albums from the 1960s and there is nothing that is unique to this album that fans of Joan Baez who have her early works would not already have. Instead, this album seems to be marketed to fans of the works of Bob Dylan who want to hear what Baez did with his work. As a result, there is nothing extraordinary or audacious that is presented from the lens of perspective - like some of the recent live covers Baez has produced. Instead, this is vintage "Baez does Dylan" work that is compiled for fans of Dylan.

That is not to say the album is in any way bad! Truth be told, my experiences with Baez albums thus far has only been with her collection Ring Them Bells (click here for that review!). On that album, there were a few live covers of Dylan tracks. Here, many of the songs are well-produced classics that define Joan Baez as a folk-rock star of some talent and emotive ability.

For those unfamiliar with Joan Baez, her history with Dylan is well-documented in the liner notes to the album, Baez Sings Dylan presents Joan Baez as an American folk singer with a beautiful alto voice and a pair of lungs on her that is able to hold notes like few artists before or sings. So, for example, on the album's first track, "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" illustrates wonderfully her ability to sing melodically long notes that are mournful and sustained. She has an impressive voice that is able to articulate high, low, fast and slower tempo. She illustrates this range on this album over the many tracks.

On "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," Baez presents one of the most impressive explorations of her tonal range as she lifts into soprano territory and then plunges to lower notes without ever sounding atonal. Instead, she is magnificent with an effortless quality that seems to allow her to transcend the notes to make musical expression that is truly emotive.

Nowhere is her ability to emote more clear than on "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." Baez sings the song with a rousing sense of determination and anger borne of love when she climaxes with "You just kinda wasted my precious time" ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right") that easily holds its own against Dylan's masterful version.

But there are several tracks where Joan Baez covers Dylan's original tracks in a way that he strong feminine vocal presence enhances the lyrics and music. So, for example, on "It Ain't Me Babe," Baez sings the song with a real sucker punch. She opens sweetly, singing the opening stanza with a portrayal of feminine innocence listing off all the qualities that her lover wants from her. And then, when the listener is drawn in with her charm and flirtatious wit, she bellows "It ain't me babe / It ain't me you're looking for" ("It Ain't Me Babe")! Her version seems strangely less cruel than Dylan's original or as the lyrics might belie. Instead, she is a woman harassed by a guy who just wants, wants, wants and this is the necessary shove-off. That is something Dylan could not pull off in his original!

There are tracks I have not heard Dylan perform (I'm still picking up his older albums to review), but Baez makes some of those songs interesting. So, for example, she sings "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" as a story-song that resonates as a working-class folk lament and it stands up well without any comparison. It's just a decent song performed well by a strong performer.

It is worth noting that most of the tracks are musically understated. Indeed, Baez does what I've not heard Dylan do on any of his albums when she performs "Tears Of Rage" a cappella. It's amazing to hear Baez present a song with the only instrument being her voice. She has a beautiful and compelling voice and she sings the track with a haunting sense of defiance that perfectly expresses the emotions behind the lyrics. It's a beautiful and stunning presentation and she does it wonderfully!

On most tracks, Baez is accompanied by a simple guitar, which she plays (and quite well). As a result, there is a musical starkness to many of the tracks that accents Baez's vocal talents and emphasizes the message of the lyrics she is singing. This works out quite well for Baez, but it does leave the listener somewhat unimpressed by the instrumental accompaniment on the album. Baez does mix it up fairly well, though, with such things as a chorus joining her for "I Shall Be Released."

This is not to say Baez always gets it right. With "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word, " Baez presents a song that is sad with an emotionally-broken narrator as an upbeat guitar-strumming ironic ditty and it just sounds terrible to the ear and heart. Instead of being wrenching and truly embodying loss, it comes across as hokey and dated. That is an exception to the rule, but one of the tracks I was most looking forward to hearing - "One Too Many Mornings" - is similarly brutalized on this album.

But for the most part, this is a solid album of well-written Bob Dylan tracks featuring Baez's unique sound and some of her own style and flair added in.

For other strong female artists, please check out my reviews of:
One Cell In The Sea - A Fine Frenzy
Left Of The Middle - Natalie Imbruglia
The Honesty Room - Dar Williams

7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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When the Fans of Folk Forsake Their Idols: Ring Them Bells Is Disappointing Joan Baez.

The Good: Great vocals, Some wonderful lyrics, Some Decent Live Presentations
The Bad: Self-indulgent Live Feeling, Nothing completely new, Little Shines
The Basics: Despite some intriguing duets, much of Ring Them Bells is Joan Baez as we already know her, resulting in this not adding significantly to her repertoire.


It was not until I was halfway through the live album Ring Them Bells that I realized that the tracks had left utterly no impression on me. That's never a good sign. I picked up Ring Them Bells because Dar Williams is one of my favorite musical artists. At a concert I attended of hers, she told a wonderful story about Joan Baez and touring with her and the genesis of the song "You're Aging Well," which was one of the stand outs on Dar's debut, The Honesty Room (click here for my review of that album!). When I saw the Joan Baez album Ring Them Bells had "You're Aging Well," with Dar Williams, I thought this would be a great album for me. I grew up listening to my father's Joan Baez - and innumerable other folk - albums.

I feel like I've been writing the words "Wow, that was a disappointment" a lot lately in my music reviews. Sadly, even after three listens to Ring Them Bells, I remain underwhelmed.

Joan Baez, for those who do no know of her works, is one of the most talented singer-songwriters to come out of the folk-rock music movement of the '60s. Joan Baez is one of the few lyrical and musical rivals to Bob Dylan. Yeah, she's that big. Baez, for those who have not explored her musical career, is one of the greatest songwriters of the last century.

But more than that, she is one of the greatest performers in American music history. Baez, more than any other musical artist in memory, has the ability to take works written by other musical artists and create the definitive recordings of the lyrics by making them her own with her distinctive voice and arrangements. Songs like Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" are more frequently compared to the Joan Baez versions than the originals. That is the profound effect Joan Baez has as a singer and performer.

And that's all the praise I have for Joan Baez right now. Joan Baez is a terrific artist, but Ring Them Bells is not her superlative recording.

With fifteen tracks, Ring Them Bells is a live concert recorded, that features Joan Baez with any number of quest musicians and vocalists. Dar Williams, The Indigo Girls, Janis Ian, Mary Black, and Mary Chapin Carpenter stand out as contributors to this live album. And out of all of that, there are two tracks I would take from Ring Them Bells.

Joan's duet with the Indigo Girls on "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" is beautiful and wrenching. It's what one hopes for when hearing great vocalists collaborating. They do not reinvent the wheel, but I can imagine watching the three harmonizing and being blown away (it's almost enough to make one wish they were at the concert to see that performance!). And the final track, Joan Baez's simple, vocal-only rendition of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" raises the bar on even Baez. It is the most haunting and articulate presentation of this classic song I have ever heard and it is an knockout to close the album.

But that's it, those two tracks. As a microcosm for the album, I will refer to "You're Aging Well." I'm a fan of Dar Williams, I like Joan Baez, I think Dar Williams wrote a great song with "You're Aging Well." The problem is hearing Dar and Baez doing the song as a duet, I expected it to be an experience, something that added to the song. I wanted to hear what Baez did with it. I wanted to hear what Baez and Dar sounded like when harmonizing.

But, for the most part, they don't. Dar took one stanza, Baez another, with minimal harmonizing on the refrain. And the notes are pretty much what Dar wrote and performed on The Honesty Room. In short, there is the illusion on this track - and throughout the album - of being something new, something fresh and it is simply a repackaging of the same old.

That's the disappointment that is Ring Them Bells. I can imagine this might have been a great concert, but I'm not reviewing the concert, I'm reviewing the album. As a recording, it does not hold up as an essential, or truly worthwhile, listening experience. I expected more. And for a live album, there is little interaction with the audience or other performers, so when there is applause or acknowledgment of the artist on stage with her at the time, there is a decadent, self-indulgent feeling to it.

The two tracks, "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" pull the album up into average territory. The rest of the tracks are simply filler.

And I'm a fan . . . .

For other albums by strong female vocalists, please check out my reviews of:
One Cell In The Sea - A Fine Frenzy
Left Of The Middle - Natalie Imbruglia
Tuesday Night Music Club - Sheryl Crow

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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