Joan Baez: Blessed Are... on 2 CDs

The double CD BLESSED ARE... (1971) is an assured set of music using many of the same Nashville players and songs by the Beatles (Let It Be), Rolling Stones’ (The Salt Of The Earth), Kris Kristofferson (Help Me Make It Through The Night), Mickey Newberry (The 33rd Of August, Angeline, San Francisco Mabel Joy), Jesse Winchester The Brand New Tennessee Waltz), Woody Guthrie (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos (Deportees), a song Joan would play “live” with Bob Dylan for much of the 1970s and Robbie Robertson’s The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, the single of which would become a major international chart hit for Baez. There is a buzz about the performances on “Blessed Are...”. An anthemic quality pervades many of them and Joan sings with an unfettered joy. Her voice on both of these albums is powerful and yet restrained to a narrower range than on her early folk albums and this works well with the type of material chosen.