Joan Baez

Joan Baez’s music is just as inspirational and relevant as it was during the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. She is a true folk troubadour whose songs cover controversial topics and take strong moral grounds. Her music has aged well and her performances are still emotionally captivating. Although Joan Baez has written many original songs, she is generally looked at as an interpreter of other people’s work. She has good taste in finding songs that are politically relevant and inspirational, and putting her own spin on the song to make it resonate with her audience. She has covered songs by such artists as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, and Woody Guthrie. She has recently modified her sound by covering more relevant artists such as Ryan Adams and Josh Ritter.
During Joan Baez’s performances it is usually just herself and her acoustic guitar. She gently strums and plucks her guitar while she pours much enthusiasm and inspiration into her singing. The whole audience is still and quiet during the performance with all eyes fixed on her and all ears honed in to her beautiful angelic voice. Her setlist is very diverse and the songs she plays cover many political and social issues. She will play several songs by her close friend, Bob Dylan, such as “Seven Curses” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”. She has also been known to play traditional songs such as “Lily of the West” and “The Water is Wide”. However, the audience is most fixated and in awe when Joan Baez plays her folk-anthem, “Diamonds and Rust”. Joan Baez’s live performances prove that her voice is just as angelic as it always has been and that the material she covers is just as important and relevant for today’s generation.

Joan Baez has been performing publicly for over 55 years, an incredible fact to match an incredible woman who's music has inspired countless modern contemporaries and has given voice to minorities through her political and social commentary. Her music resonates with fans through a number of decades so therefore the crowd gathered this evening is expectedly varied, aged patrons come along with their offspring as Baez's music is exactly the kind of thing you would be proud to offer down to your children.

The lady herself is as warm and personable as ever, greeting the crowds as though they were old friends. She is joined only by a few other musicians and they go about creating the warm, earthy tones of her discography in slick proficiency. The acoustic sounds are glorious and Joan has clearly thought about the kind of music she would include for the setlist, the crowd are responsive and enthusiastic throughout the evening and she looks genuinely overwhelmed by certain reactions. A true voice of power, equality and fairness who is a complete joy to watch perform live.

I have followed Joan Baez for at least 55 years, hearing her in all her different manifestations. This is a warm, lovely concert with a small band, as good as I've ever seen her do. She sings many old ballads and some political songs (Joe Hill anybody?) and some new songs, some sounding a bit different because her voice has changed a bit with age, but all wonderful. I especially loved "Jerusalem " and she ended with "Forever Young, " one of the audience's favourites. Her small band includes her son as drummer and percussionist, who does an extraordinarily wonderful stint in one song. Her other band member seems to play everything with strings - violin, piano, guitar, banjo etc. Amazing. Also, her assistant , Grace, joins her in beautiful harmonies, as lovely as I used to hear Joan and her sister, Mimi Farina, sing. Joan clearly has a lot of stamina - two hours without a break, and the audience (and I) could have gone on for another two. If there had been more concerts, I would gladly have gone again.

This concert was amazing, Joan Baez' music is just as relevant and beautiful as it was decades ago.
She performed in front of the dome in cologne, which was a breathtaking view as the sun went down. Her voice is so clear and touching and as a 21-year old girl I am mostly used to meaningless songs on the radio that sound the same.
But Joans tells fascinating stories with a deeper meaning which just blew me away.
One of the most beautiful concerts I ever went to, held by a true icon.
The location was seated and we had a great view, but after the concert was "done" she returned for approx. 5-10 more songs, all of them classics, and the crowd stood up and moved closer to the stage and really enjoyed themselves.
It felt like two concerts in one, both amazing, but one very calming and beautiful and the other more personal.
Whoever buys tickets to see this legend live will not regret it!

The concert in Oslo was very moving. She performed 19 songs and 3 encores.

Jan Baez is a charismatic woman with a charming smile and a voice which is still strong and beautiful. The songs she sings are relevant and appeal strongly to the audience everywhere in the world. Many of us had tears in our eyes and a lump in the throat.

You must go to her concert in Europe during her "Fare Thee Well Tour" in Europe!

Grace Stumberg, her personal assistant and a singer has a beatiful voice and her own band in Buffalo. It may happen that she performs with Grace Lougen from her band in a pub before or after Joan's concert. Who knows ;-)?

Excellent last seen over 40yrs ago and has still got that pitch perfect voice and sense of humour took my wife with me who has near seen Joan live and she came away from the show saying how much she enjoyed it and looks forward to seeing her again

Yet again Joan never fails to please although she had a bit of a cold she give her all the only disappoint is that this will be her last tour