"Blessed Are..." by JOAN BAEZ – August 1971 US and UK 2LP Studio Set on Vanguard Records with a Bonus 45-Single (US Copies Only) – band featuring 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 (September 2005 UK Ace/Vanguard Masters 2CD Expanded Edition Reissue in the Original Masters Series – Jeff Zaraya Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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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...