Emily: Joan Baez is one of the founding mothers of modern folk, if not the founding mother. She was one of the first, way back in the early '60s when a lot of artists were just getting into rock and roll and British mod, she was delivering stripped-down renditions of traditional folk songs. This album is a preview of the protesting, outspoken, Bob-Dylan-girlfriend Baez of the late '60s. Each song is a traditional ballad, but she makes it her own by rearranging the music to only focus on an acoustic guitar and her pure, clear voice. The spiritual undertones of many of the songs reminded me of synagogue music of my childhood. The cantor played an acoustic guitar while singing simple songs about the holidays, Torah stories, or Moses - none too different than Baez's rendition of Little Moses. Donna Donna is a Yiddish folk song too, which is probably why this connection became so clear to me. I think 1960 Baez would make a great cantor in this sense. I can easily imagine choruses of children singing backup while she plays the guitar and expresses the universal ideals of these traditional songs. I'm sure the more badass Baez of later years would disagree with this image, but the beautiful simplicity of this debut conjures it for me.
Favorite Tracks: House of the Rising Sun; Donna Donna; Mary Hamilton
Zack: How does one go about outfolking folk music? Why, by taking standard folk tunes and reworking them so they sound like your brand of stripped-down, sincere folk music. Folk! Joan Baez on Joan Baez takes a bunch of songs, some of which will undoubtedly sound familiar, and transforms them so they are clearly Baez-esque ballads. Baez! I’m sorry, but when I don’t have anything funny to say I often just resort to saying the same words over and over again until they themselves sound funny. Folk. Folk. Folk. Baez. Baez. Baez. See it yet? I have nothing funny to say about this album because it is a rather beautifully honest display of songs that are specifically picked so they will sound vaguely familiar, while also being different enough because of the way in which they are played. Take, for instance, House of the Rising Sun. You’ve probably heard it somewhere, maybe by The Animals (full disclosure: I didn’t actually remember the name of the band who played that version and had to look it up) or Muse or the first part to Green Day and U2’s version of the Saints Are Coming. Point is, you’ve heard it somewhere, but not the way Baez does it. Quite a few songs are like that. Admittedly, I hadn’t heard quite a few of them before, but by the end of the album, they all felt very familiar.
Favorite Tracks: House of the Rising Sun; Mary Hamilton;
Silver Dagger
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