Joan Baez - Whistle down the wind

With a career of approaching 60 years it's hard to think of a folk singer as well known and influential as Joan Baez. More than a musician, she was on the front lines of the civil rights movement in the 60s, the anti Vietnam war protests and has championed human rights, LGBT rights, environmental campaigns and more. It's been a full decade since her last studio album was released (2008's Day after tomorrow). Since then she's been honoured by Amnesty International, had her first album inducted into the Grammy hall of fame and also had it preserved in the National recording registry of the Library of Congress, and has been inducted into the Rock and roll hall of fame.

Check out the title track, "Whistle down the wind"....



With this being her 25th studio album (not counting the dozens of compilations or the dozen or so live albums), I'm sure Joan Baez fans already know what to expect - beautiful vocals, lovely acoustic guitar work and of course intelligent powerful lyrics, but this album is slightly different in that the songs are all written by other people, making this a covers album really. That said, she's not picked songs that would feel wrong - they've been carefully chosen so they still have intelligent thoughtful lyrics. With songs from Eliza Gilkyson, Tom Waits, Josh Ritter, Mary Chapin Carpenter and more, the variety of writers could easily have led to them sounding great but not working as an album, but with the choice of songs and her arrangements then Joan Baez has achieved a remarkable level of consistency as all these songs fit together perfectly.

It's a fantastic album and is one I've got no hesitation in recommending.

"Whistle down the wind" will be released on 2nd March 2018

Track listing:

1. Whistle down the wind
2. Be of good heart
3. Another world
4. Civil war
5. The things that we are made of
6. The president sang Amazing Grace
7. Last leaf
8. Silver blade
9. The great correction
10. I wish the wars were all over