We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
After a decade with folk label Vanguard, the iconic voice of Joan Baez moved to A&M Records aiming for more commercial sound. The move did not mean a change from the topical material she would record, although making the record in Nashville with all those great session cats did give it a bit of a different sound.
The political songs are still strident….”Prison Trilogy”, “All The Weary Mothers Of the Earth”and “Song Of Bangladesh” check all those boxes. Some of her other originals stand out for me including “Myths” and “To Bobby” ( a song aimed at Dylan pleading with him to be topical once more).
Surrounded by Nashville Cats like Norbert Putnam, David Briggs, Kenny Buttrey, Charlie McCoy and Grady Martin also allows her to feed her interest in country music with a decent version of Kenny Roger’s “A Stranger In My Place”.
The album closes with a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.
As I’ve said in the past about Judy Collins, the voice is beautiful but the sameness of it gets tiresome over the course of a whole album. I can enjoy Baez, but only in small doses.
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