Songbird

The recordings are divided onto two discs – both made to resemble old vinyl LPs. The first disc consists of all 13 tracks from her 1960 (major label) debut album Joan Baez released on Vanguard in the US and Fontana in the UK. As far as I can tell all these tracks are the original versions from that early album, and although I have them on vinyl as well as CD it is nice to have them again in this package. The songs are now so well known to Baez fans that there is really no need to say much about them, but I will say that all songs are Joan accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, with Fred Hellerman of the Weavers on 2nd guitar. I have to say that my favourite tracks are ‘John Riley’ and ‘Mary Hamilton’. These, and most of the other songs on the album are traditional and Joan faithfully sings them in the original style. Both ‘Mary Hamilton’ and ‘Henry Martin’ are Child Ballads. Joan’s most widely available albums date from 1960 onwards, so maybe of more interest is disc 2 entitled ‘Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square’ recorded in 1959 and originally released on the independent label Veritas. The 10 tracks on this disc were produced by Lemuel Marshall Wells and recorded in a Boston basement in May 1959 when Joan was just 17-years-old. Her voice is somewhat huskier on these early recordings but still as amazing as we know it today. Only 7 of what were originally 18 songs were solo efforts by Joan but for some reason only 6 of the 7 have been included here. Three of the remaining four songs are duets with Bill Wood and the final track is shared by Baez, Wood and Ted Alevizos. Joan only occasionally sang duets in the early days, so these 4 songs are a real find for completists. Of the 10 songs only two were re-recorded – ‘The Banks Of The Ohio’ which is also on ‘Joan Baez Vol 2′ (1961) and ‘Black Is The Color’ which is on ‘Joan Baez in Concert’(1962). As far as I can tell none of the others have been recorded again by her and so are relatively unknown, though of course ‘Careless Love’ has been covered by many singers over the years.