Audio CD review:
Joan Baez - Blowin' Away

Joan Baez - Blowin' Away

Band: Joan Baez Title: Blowin' Away Rating: Release Date: 2000-01-01 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Sailing - Joan Baez, Sutherland, Gavin 2: Many a Mile to Freedom - Joan Baez, Winwood, Steve 3: Miracles 4: Yellow Coat - Joan Baez, Goodman, Steve [1] 5: Time Rag 6: A Heartfelt Line or Two 7: I'm Blowin' Away - Joan Baez, Kaz, Eric 8: Luba the Baroness 9: Alter Boy and the Thief 10: Cry Me a River - Joan Baez, Hamilton, Arthur

An absolute gem from the 1970s As I listened to it, I couldn't believe that I didn't buy it years ago. This disc arrived in the mail today. This is a GREAT Joan Baez album. I owned it on vinyl. This was recorded and released in 1977, Joan's first album for Portrait Records. It has a terrific mix of material, including five original songs. The songs that Joan interprets are dynamite. The disc starts out with "Sailing," a very appealing and upbeat performance. Perhaps my favorite is Joan's rendition of Steve Goodman's song "Yellow Coat," from his first studio album (which Joan also appeared on, as background vocalist for "Donald & Lydia"). This is a heartbreaking song about a relationship that has ended in reality, but not in the heart of the narrator. The recording closes with Joan's jazz-tinged performance of the standard "Cry Me a River," which in my opinion ranks as one of the best interpretations of the song. "Blowin' Away" is also special because it includes one of Joan's best original songs, "Miracles. " It always has amazed me that this song has not been more widely anthologized in Joan's canon of recordings. Lyrically and musically, the song is top-notch. Also, the album includes "The Altar Boy and the Thief," which was a groundbreaking song about Joan's observations of a gay male couple in a bar. One criticism (and there also has to be at least one) is that, given the relative brevity of the program (approximately 40 minutes), Sony could have added the 45rpm single version of "Time Rag," which, as a single, was remixed and given a faster disco beat. Not to mention, the mono mixes of the songs released as singles could have been added, which would have brought the disc's length to approximately 52 minutes. "Blowin' Away" was a sleeper in Joan's long career that should have been much more commercially successful than it was at the time of its original release. For the purists who bemoaned Joan's departure from the folk sound, or the misogynists who claimed Joan was not a pop/rock singer, I say "Raspberries. ". Demonstration of Joan's versatility From Stevie Wonder's "Miracles" and its uplifting keyboard dance, to a jazzy number penned by Stevie Winwood and Jim Capaldi during their Traffic days - "Many a Mile to Freedom" and on to the self-penned, almost hip-hop "Time Rag", which is a recounting of her love/hate relationship with the press, Baez takes that superb voice of hers out for a grand spin. This CD grandly demonstrates Joan's versatility in the wide range of genres in which she sings. Her early albums relied on her impeccable flair for interpreting traditional folk songs with her five-octave voice while "Blowin' Away" shows what she can do with more contemporary music. Actually, this CD is a buffet in which almost anyone could find something to enjoy. Baez more than ably wrings great emotion out of the Julie London classic, "Cry Me a River", which she explores using the lower registers of her voice then soaring with the anthem-like "Sailing" written by Gavin Sutherland. Of particular note is "Luba, the Baroness", another Baez original, recounting her relationship with an interesting family she met in France many years ago. It is a fascinating slice of life look at an unusual family that reveals her ability as a songwriter adept at unusual melodies. Another Baez original is her poetic nod to a gay mating dance in "Altar Boy and the Thief", with lines such as, "Finely plucked eyebrows and skin of satin Smiling seductive and endlessly Latin Olympic body on dancing feet Perfume thickening the air like heat", she disproves Dylan's claim that her "poetry is lousy. " While a casual glance at the menu or a first listening might suggest this is merely a grab bag of songs she found appealing, further listening will confirm that Baez is showing us the versatility and diversity of the human experience. And doing so with élan and sometimes a snappy beat! . Solid collection But at its best, it's wonderful. I agree that this is not the best starting point for a new Joan Baez fan - it isn't characteristic of her overall sound. The Altar Boy and the Thief, Luba the Baroness, and A Heartfelt Line or Two are heart-rending and beautiful songs, and her voice is in great shape (I've always felt that her voice was at its strongest in the seventies and eighties - for me it was too shrill in the sixties). . Diamonds Pt 2 To me, the gist of the album still lies in her own songwriting though. After writing all the songs on Gulf Winds, Joan switched labels and continued in the direction of Diamonds & Rust which was a mixture of her own compositions and a more commercial pop-rock sound via cover versions of contemporary material. The 70's has seen Joan blossom into a brilliant songwriter, and this album, despite its eclecticism, highlights the simple beauty of a singer-songwriter who's got a soul to bare and the honest, courageous voice to back it up. Miracles is a mellow jazzy piece that was explained to be a Stevie Wonder tribute in the album's original liner notes. It is similar to Children & All That Jazz and Dida except there is a "real song" in it. Time Rag and A Heartfelt Line Or Two both reveal the singer's perspective on her career but from vastly different angles and settings. The real peak of the album comes in Side 2, with Luba The Baroness, one of Joan's best story songs about a fallen Aristocrat French family and her own intertwining relationship with each member. It is followed by Alter Boy & The Thief, Joan's sympathetic portrayal of the gay community, a nod to her considerable gay fanbase: "To me they will always remain - unshamed, untamed and unblamed. . . " In the 70's this was very touching stuff. The cover versions are mostly fine. . . Sailing is the best known song on the album, but it suits Joan like a glove. Others by Steve Goodman and Stevie Winwood were all given a typically earnest reading by Joan, although the title track by Eric Kaz had been better done by both Bonnie Raitt and Craig Fuller from Kaz's own band American Flyer. Cry Me A River offers a suitably torchy ending after Alter Boy's gay tribute. Everything about this album OTHER than the actual music tends to shortchange it, from the frivolous cover shot of Joan to its subsequent reputation as a slight, lesser album in her catalog. The truth is it's still a damn good album and there is no reason why you shouldn't enjoy it if you enjoy the more modern and commercial sound of Diamonds & Rust. The CD release doesn't do it justice either. The original album was very well produced. The lack of good remastering makes it sound much harsher, and no information (incl. songwriter's credits) are preserved from the original packaging. Adding to it, they inexplicably surround the original artwork with an ugly blue border. Does a budget release have to sound and look like one? I for one don't mind paying double the price if it's reissued properly like Joan's early Vanguard albums. No, you are not the only person who likes this album You have to know her work a bit to appreciate how different this album is compared to her albums prior to the release of "Blowin' Away". The other reviews of this album make good points; it is not what I would recommend to someone wanting to buy their first Baez album. You would also have to know that she had just changed labels to "Portrait", a subsidiary of CBS Records. There is a small enclosure that came with the vinyl album when it was released in 1977 showing some recording "execs" trying to explain to Ms. Baez what they are hoping this album will be like; she sums up their blather with the comment "More commerical?" It may not be a milestone, but it is definitely unique, almost an oddity in Ms. Baez' work. And quite listenable. "Time Rag" shows her spirit and probably represents what this album is, perhaps, about; "Rippin' along toward middle age/and my music career kinda missed a page". How well I believe most of Ms. Baez', um, "mature" fans can relate to that these days! And I've heard other versions of "Cry Me A River", but this is the one I think of more often than not - has more of a "bite" and bitterness to it than some of the more maudlin versions. "Yellow Coat" is similar to "Diamonds & Rust" in theme; people drift apart and are left with. . . ? However, when I bought the vinyl album in 1977 - yes I am quite ancient - I was most taken with "Altar Boy and The Thief". You would have to be quite young and just coming to terms with being gay to understand what such a song meant. That someone of Ms. Baez's stature and talent would have even bothered to write such a song, let alone put it on an album, in 1977, with a new recording company? Amazing. As other reviews have pointed out, there are some excellent songs on this album, some may not be Baez at her peak, but overall it is an album I have listened to often since 1977 and that I still enjoy listening to - that makes it 5 stars for me!. You can see a complete list of all Joan Baez discography, or go back to the Joan Baez tabs