Joan Baez

Joan Baez's clear soprano was the voice of the 1960s folk revival. From her first Newport appearance in 1959 she combined traditional ballads with the new songs of the protest movement, and spent six decades singing for civil rights and peace.

Career

Baez's professional career began at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959, where she sang duets with Bob Gibson. That appearance led to a contract with Vanguard, which released her debut album Joan Baez in 1960. By November 1962 she was on the cover of Time magazine.

She recorded Bob Dylan's songs early and did much to popularize his work. She sang fourteen songs at Woodstock in 1969, appeared at Live Aid in 1985, and in 1993 became the first major artist to perform in Sarajevo after the Yugoslav war began. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. She stepped down from the stage in 2019 and has since devoted herself to painting portraits.

Activism

Baez was one of the first musicians to use her popularity for social protest, campaigning for civil rights, nonviolence, human rights and the environment. She is closely associated with "We Shall Overcome", the civil rights anthem that Pete Seeger helped popularize.

Songs to know

• "Diamonds & Rust", her own song, from the 1975 album of the same name
• "There but for Fortune"
• "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
• "Joe Hill"
• "Sweet Sir Galahad"

Selected albums

Explore the traditional ballads at the heart of the folk revival, such as Barbara Allen and The Water Is Wide.