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"...Salt Of The Earth..."
Joan Baez needed (in some respects) to
re-establish herself with the buying public as not just that 60ts protest
singer of old, but a contemporary artist in the emerging singer-songwriter
scenery of 1971.
And for platter number fourteen on Vanguard
Records – her studio double album "Blessed Are..." released in August
of that huge year for Rock Music and its adjoining genres, did just that - it
went to No. 11 in the US Billboard Rock LP charts- something many Folkies
hadn’t been able to do. Amongst the ten cover versions of contemporary
Country-Rock and Folk-Rock hipsters like Mickey Newbury, The Band, Kris
Kristofferson and Jesse Winchester – were ten new originals and even a free
2-Track 45-single for first callers.
This sweet-sounding 2CD Remaster has
done that urge-to-splurge proud – even including both sides of that 45-single
on a separate CD and throwing in a previously unreleased throwback to 1969 as a
Bonus. To the hungry and the broken...
UK released September 2005 - "Blessed
Are..." by JOAN BAEZ is on Ace/Vanguard Masters VMD2 79760 (Barcode
029667016728). This 'Original Master Series' 2CD Reissue offers the full August
1971 US double-album Remastered onto CD1 with its accompanying 2-Track 7"
bonus single remastered onto CD2 as Plus One More, a Previously Unreleased
Performance from the 1969 Woodstock Festival as Track 3. It plays out as
follows:
CD1 "Blessed Are..." (78:06 minutes):
Side 1
1. Blessed Are...
2. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [Band
cover]
3. The Salt Of The Earth [Rolling Stones cover]
4. Three Horses
5. The Brand New Tennessee Waltz [Jesse
Winchester cover]
Side 2
6. Last, Lonely And Wretched
7. Lincoln Freed Me Today [David Patton cover]
8. Outside The Nashville City Limits
9. San Francisco Mabel Joy [Mickey Newbury
cover]
10. When Time Is Stolen
Side 3
11. Heaven Help Us All [Ron Miller cover]
12. Angeline [Mickey Newbury cover]
13. Help Me Make It Through The Night [Kris
Kristofferson cover]
14. Let It Be [Beatles cover]
15. Put Your Hand In The Hand [Gene MacLellan
cover]
Side 4
16. Gabriel And Me
17. Milanese Waltz/Marie Flore
18. The Hitchhiker's Song
19. The 33rd Of August [Mickey Newbury cover]
20. Fifteen Months
Tracks 1 to 20 are her fourteenth album
"Blessed Are..." - released August 1971 in the USA on Vanguard
VSD-6570-1 - same catalogue number in the UK but minus the bonus 2-track
7" single that came with original US copies (see CD2). Produced by NORBERT
PUTNAM and JACK LOTHROP - all songs written by Joan Baez (except the cover
versions noted above). It peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard Rock Charts
(didn't chart UK).
CD2 "Blessed Are..." Bonus Tracks
(12:56 minutes):
1. Maria Dolores
2. Plane Wreck At Los Gatos (Deportee)
Tracks 1 and 2 were issued as 'Bonus Disc'
7" single with original copies of the US double album
3. Warm And Tender Love (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
performance from the 1969 Woodstock Festival)
The 12-page booklet has dense new liner notes
(done in 2004) by Grammy-nominated music historian ARTHUR LEVY. Levy explains
that a suggestion to relocate sessions to the newly kitted out Quadrafonic
Studios in Nashville by Maynard Soloman (a Producer at Vanguard) opened up a
whole new level of creativity for her. Perhaps more importantly, it sided
Baez's beautiful voice and poise with top session-players like Norman Blake and
Pete Wade on Guitars, Charlie McCoy on Harmonica, Norbert Putnam on Bass and
Production, Kenneth Buttrey on Drums with Back Up from The Memphis Horns, The
Holladay Singers and The Town And Country Singers. Blake had played for Johnny
Cash for years while Norbert Putnam and Kenneth Buttrey were in Area Code 615.
The Remaster is by JEFF ZARAYA using original
analogue tapes and is gorgeous - clean and full - and with much of the music
acoustic-based - has a sweet clarity to it.
She smartly chooses three Mickey Newbury tunes
all from his "Looks Like Rain" album issued in the USA on Mercury
Records SR 61236 in September 1969. She taps 1968's "Beggars Banquet"
for a cover of The Stones "Salt Of The Earth" and you can so see why
her heart would be with the lyrical and musical sophistication of The Beatles'
beautiful "Let It Be". Matthews Southern Comfort also saw the beauty
in the Country sway of "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz" - probably
Jesse Winchester's most popular tune.
While I kinda cringe at the overwhelming
earnest in the title track "Be Blessed..." and stuff like "Last,
Lonely And Wretched", Baez was no slouch on quality with songs of her own like the
seven-minutes of "Three Horses" (a stallion on the hill tale), the
horse-trot acoustic jaunt in "Outside The Nashville City Limits" (a
local with a slow drawl shows her the most beautiful place in Tennessee), the
sad and plaintive "When Time Is Stolen" (laughter riddled with tears)
and the grey quiet horse that nobody sees except "Gabriel And Me".
The Spanish Language "Maria Dolores"
7"-single track over on the short CD2 comes complete with hacienda swaying
strings and ladies – while lettuce is rotting in the five-minute Mexican Border
deportation tale of woe - "Plane Wreck At Los Gatos" – a Woody
Guthrie lyrical gem. But best surprise of all is the pretty love-in vibe of
Bobby Robinson's "Warm And Tender" (a song he gave to Percy Sledge on
Atlantic Records). Recorded live at Woodstock in August 1969, it's actually a
gorgeous Baez and Harmony Vocalist rendition – a slow and heartfelt melody
ballad and a clever way of tying-up this themed double.
I would be the first to admit that this kind of
Folk/Folk-Rock is very much of its time – but the quality of the songs, playing
and the CD transfers makes "Blessed Are..." a must-buy for fans...
