Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 Sleeper
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writer
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- 2 In My Time of Need
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- 3 Rosemary Moore
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- 4 Caleb Meyer
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writer
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writer
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- 5 Motherland
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writer
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- 6 Wings
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- 7 Rexroth's Daughter
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- 8 Elvis Presley Blues
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writer
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- 9 King's Highway
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writer
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- 10 Christmas in Washington
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writer
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Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right.
2 Issues
2 Reviews
When I was 17 and listening to Bob Dylan for about 75% of my waking life, I wanted to like Joan Baez, just on principle. But I never made it. There was something about her voice that I didn’t warm to. There was something about Dylan’s singing that was informal, it wore jeans, but there was something slightly operatic about Baez, something a bit old fashioned, a bit too mannered. I wanted Marlon Brando and she was more Laurence Olivier. But a few years ago my partner went to a Joan Baez concert and bought this CD – so a few years later I have been listening to it. Now in her sixties, Baez’s voice has calmed down: it’s pleasant. But Baez fans will say it is more than just pleasant, but I can’t hear it (and there is nothing wrong with being pleasant). And all the songs lilt along in a pleasant way. So I would say it is a pleasant album. For me the greatest interest is in the songs she sings: slices of Americana by songwriters that I know vaguely but know little about. And it is a mythic presentation of America, an America between the big cities on the sea boards, an America I think of as rural, small town (so when I see a photo of Wichita and see the tall modern concrete buildings it just doesn’t seem right), created by songs and books and films – mine is a European’s view of America. Years ago I remember an American I had met speaking with great contempt for a shot in the film Paris, Texas which lingered on a neon sign of galloping horses: the American said only a European would linger on such tackiness with such romantic imagination – probably true and I am one of the Europeans whose unconscious has been colonised by America. So, these songs are part of that romanticism, a mythic presentation of America. I like the sense of place (A small farm in Wisconsin, Clouds roll in from Nebraska), the details of lived lives, the narratives that seem to have their ancestors in the ballads of England or Scotland or Ireland. Part of the mythologizing is falling into nostalgia – Ryan Adams thinks of a past When everyone would offer up a hand, Natalie Merchant yearns for community Far from the spread of concrete: yep, there is a lot of reactionary turning away from the modern world, but there is also Steve Earle’s liberal yearning for the heroes of the past in Christmas in Washington...and I realise that where I dismiss this wallowing nostalgia when it is British, American nostalgia entrances me – and, of course, it shouldn’t, I feel guilty about it, but there you are. Not all the songs here have the same effect on me and the albums final impact on me will probably be to push me to listen to more songs by Greg Brown, Josh Ritter, Ryan Adams and Steve Earle.
Published
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Joan is aging well... as is her voice... relaxed Baez! (almost) Listen a bit deeper each time,
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Catalog
4 Apr 2023
12 Feb 2023
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1
Sleeper
-
2
In My Time of Need
-
3
Rosemary Moore
-
4
Caleb Meyer
-
5
Motherland
-
6
Wings
-
7
Rexroth's Daughter
-
8
Elvis Presley Blues
-
9
King's Highway
-
10
Christmas in Washington
19 Jan 2023
21 Aug 2022
20 Aug 2022
28 Apr 2022
14 Jan 2022
6 Jan 2022
12 Aug 2021
25 Nov 2020
17 Oct 2020
14 Sep 2020
14 Jul 2020
20 Jun 2020
-
1
Sleeper
-
2
In My Time of Need
-
3
Rosemary Moore
-
4
Caleb Meyer
-
5
Motherland
-
6
Wings
-
7
Rexroth's Daughter
-
8
Elvis Presley Blues
-
9
King's Highway
-
10
Christmas in Washington
7 May 2020
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