Joan Baez Biography

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. She is a soprano with a three-octave vocal range and a distinctive throat vibrato.

She is best known for her seventies hits "Diamonds & Rust" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" -- and to a lesser extent, "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "Joe Hill" (songs she popularized at the 1969 Woodstock festival). She is also well known due to her early and long-lasting relationship with Bob Dylan and her even longer lasting passion for activism, notably in the areas of nonviolence, civil and human rights and, in more recent years, the environment. She has performed publicly for nearly fifty years, released over thirty albums and recorded songs in over eight languages. She is considered a folksinger although her music has strayed from folk considerably after the sixties, encompassing everything from rock and pop to country and gospel. Although a songwriter herself, especially in the mid-seventies, Baez is most often regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, covering songs by The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and myriad others. In more recent years, she has found success interpreting songs of diverse songwriters such as Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant and Ryan Adams.

Baez, Joan. 1988. And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. Century Hutchinson, London. ISBN 0-7126-1827-9