Growing up with artists such as Great Big Sea, and even playing in an East Coast Kitchen Party cover band, I was inclined to like this album as soon as I saw the genre of folk. Keep in mind that folk can encompass a large amount of music across many sounds, cultures, and topics, but at its’ most basic form, it’s typically simple songs that are easy to sing along to and pass along, and easy to play along to, usually indicated by simpler instrumentation. In the case of Joan Baez’s self-titled album in question, the only instrumentation is her acoustic guitar, and her voice and guitar alone is enough to express the emotion and energy that some of these songs call for. I can’t say I’ve honestly heard of Joan Baez before this album, but that’s the fun of a project like this – showing me music that I would usually never seek out or listen to, and overall, I am very happy I listened to this album as I enjoy quite a few of the songs.
It starts out, in my opinion, with as much of a bang that an album can have with “Silver Dagger”, a wonderfully upbeat song about a woman isolating herself from any possible suitors due to her parent’s disapproval of anyone. Funny enough, it actually turns out to be my favourite on the album, with it’s impressively tight finger-style guitar propelling it forwards, and the lyrics are just as interesting, going as far as to call her own father a devil and also part of the problem of men breaking too many hearts. Overall it’s a song about a mother trying to protect her daughter after seeing what her father has done, but going too far and ending up with her isolating herself. A wonderful listen overall and a great way to start.
The album continues with a slower song with “East Virginia”, and then “Fare Thee Well”, the latter featuring some fairly impressive vocal runs during the chorus, showcasing Joan’s tremolo in her voice that comes through on longer notes. After these two brings us to the first song that caught my eye when looking over the track list – “House Of The Rising Sun”. Made famous by The Animals 4 years later, it doesn’t feature the iconic guitar riff, nor most of the verses that The Animals and future versions use. In fact, it features some verses that I’ve never heard in other versions of the song. Whether it’s more traditional verses or some that Joan wrote herself, I’m not sure but it is quite fascinating to hear a version of the song before the version that everyone knows.
After a few more songs – “All My Trials” featuring more religious oriented lyrics and “Wildwood Flower” having lyrics about her lover leaving her, it brings us to another interesting track – “Donna Donna”. This song is about a calf going to market, while there’s a swallow flying fast and free. It’s hard to tell whether this song is an allegory for something else, or whether it’s exactly about a calf going to market, but besides a good amount of repetition (which is normal for folk songs, and part of it), it’s a surprisingly haunting song, though not the most haunting on the album.
Next up is “John Riley”, which is a personal favourite of mine. A simple song about missing her lover who is at sea, and does not care if he found someone else or is at the bottom of the sea – she will stay strong with him. After this is “Rake and Rambling Boy”, which has an interesting thing to notice with the lyrics, as it was originally written by a man a long time ago, the lyrics talk about his pretty little wife, while also calling her gay. Of course, the meaning of gay has changed over the years, but with a female singing it, and having that word in there, it weirdly takes on a new meaning in the modern day. I thought it was an interesting thing to notice.
After “Little Moses”, another religious song that gives me “theatre kid singing around a campfire at bible camp” (again, not a bad thing), we get to the previously mentioned most haunting song – “Mary Hamilton”. This is the longest song on the album and it needs it to establish its’ feelings and story. It basically is about a woman named Mary Hamilton who becomes pregnant by the king while being an attendant for the Queen. To hide the affair, after she gives birth, she puts her baby on a boat and pushes it out to sea, not caring whether it survives or not, as long as she doesn’t see it again. However, she is discovered, and is sentenced to hanging. The entire song takes place from Mary’s perspective in first person, and is quite the listen. Another great song.
“Henry Martin” is another simple folk song about pirates on the seas, followed by a song fully in Spanish, “El Preso Numero Nueve”, which closes out the original release of the album. However, I was listening to the 2006 CD re-issue, which comes with three additional tracks. “Girl of Constant Sorrow” is seemingly a re-write of the famous “Man of Constant Sorrow”, made famous by the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou, and one last song called “I Know You Rider”. It also has an extended version of “John Riley” with an additional verse.
Overall, as folk music goes, this is great stuff! Good mix of story telling, both historical and personal. which folk music always excels at. While I love a good, story-telling song, I’m personally more partial to upbeat songs about personal problems, which gravitates me towards songs like “Silver Dagger”, but personal preference aside, songs such as “John Riley”, “Rake and Rambling Boy”, “Donna Donna”, and “Mary Hamilton” highlight Joan strengths to take traditional songs and give such emotion to them, and make them her own. I wasn’t personally a fan of her version of “House of the Rising Sun”, but I could just be used to the newer version. All of that side though, I am incredibly happy to have listened to this album, and to have added some of its’ songs to my ever-growing catalogue of great folk music.
Overall Rating: 3.75/5
Favourite Song: “Silver Dagger”