In the liner notes to Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2, there is a Bob Dylan poem in which he talks about how his notion of beauty was formed by singers like Hank Williams and "real" folk music only to be found in the ugly grit of the railroad lines, "in the cracks an' curbs / Clothed in robes a dust an' grime." As it continues, Dylan's ideas about beauty evolve and the poem ends up being the story of how his youthful rebellion was quelled, his anger cooled, his spirit softened, at least enough to allow him to listen to Baez and her three-octave range. Though the poem has always been one of my favorites, I had my doubts. Both of my parents love Joan Baez and so I grew up with an opportunity to get to know her, though I mostly squandered it. I found her voice a little too formal, a little too piercing, a little too pretty. So, I avoided her, unless she was singing duets with Dylan at his Philharmonic Hall concert in 1964 or with the Rolling Thunder Revue in the mid-70s. His gruff stuff is the washboard to her water and the songs all come out clean. On this, her debut album, her sonorous soprano is in peak form and she wields it with expert control. "El Preso Numero Nueve," the final track, is the most impressive. Not only is her Spanish gorgeous, but the tempo, too, robs her of the ability to hold those high notes too long, which can grate. In her defense, talent this rare can make it tempting to show-off even when it would be better to pull things back. These are, after all, simple songs, many of them sung to traditional airs with lyrics in the public domain. The same deadpan delivery that allows the singer to sing from another's perspective, regardless of race or gender (as Baez does on "Rake and Rambling Boy," among others), is an approach that allows the material to speak for itself. On the one hand, Baez's voice lent the heft of a vocal superstar to a music that was making a serious comeback and pushed the revival into overdrive. But did she outshine the songs she was attempting to introduce to a whole new generation? Bruce Eder, on AllMusic.com, in his review of the album, seems to confirm this criticism (though he considers it praise), when he refers to her singing as "so pure and beguiling that the mere act of listening to her - forget what she was singing - was a pleasure." As for me, I can't help but think that on this album, she steals the show, for better and worse. Grade: B-
