Joan Baez

5 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

INCLUDES 2 BONUS TRACKS

Long unavailable on vinyl, this quintessential edition includes Baez’s self-titled debut LP, Joan Baez. Originally released in October 1960 by the Vanguard label, the album went gold (and stayed in the bestseller charts for over two years). It contains the definitive versions of 13 traditional songs, some of them children’s ballads. Her delivery is crystal clear and confident. The album was beguiling enough to woo even conservative-leaning listeners.

Accompanied by The Weavers’ Fred Hellerman on second guitar, Baez gives a fine account of the most reserved and least confrontational aspects of the folk revival (including a startling version of “House of the Rising Sun”). She presents a brace of traditional songs (most notably “East Virginia” and “Mary Hamilton”) with an urgency and sincerity that makes the listener feel as though they were being sung for the first time.

The album opens with a song that was to become her signature piece for many years, “Silver Dagger”. In addition to the original masterpiece, this WaxTime collector’s edition includes 2 bonus tracks from early Baez sessions that were originally released in 1959 on the compilation LP Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square.

PERSONNEL:

JOAN BAEZ, vocals and guitar, plus :

Fred Hellerman, second guitar on “All My Trials”, “Wildwood Flower”, “Donna Donna”, “Rake and Rambling Boy”, “Little Moses”, and “El Preso Número Nueve”).
All tracks produced by Maynard Solomon.

Recorded at Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom, New York, July 1960.

BONUS TRACKS: produced by Lemuel Marshall Wells and recorded in Boston, May 1959.

SIDE 1

01. SILVER DAGGER
02. EAST VIRGINIA
03. FARE THEE WELL
03. (TEN THOUSAND MILES)
04. HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
05. ALL MY TRIALS
06. WILDWOOD FLOWER
07. DONNA DONNA
08. O WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY (*)

SIDE 2

01. JOHN RILEY
02. RAKE AND RAMBLING BOY
03. LITTLE MOSES
04. MARY HAMILTON
05. HENRY MARTIN
06. EL PRESO NÚMERO NUEVE
07. BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S HAIR (*)

(*) BONUS TRACKS