Joan Baez – Joan Baez

I found this 1960 LP in the thrift shop for $2. Can you imagine? The sleeve is in decent nick, and the LP has only minor light marks. I cleaned it up and it played (pretty much) perfectly, very little hiss and pop.

Consider the person who would donate this LP to a thrift shop. Have they recently suffered a concussion, or a stroke? Or is it the children of a recently deceased parent who don’t know (or care) what it is? Whatever the case, surely no one in their right mind as a music fan would ditch this LP. So of course I rescued it and have given it a warm and welcoming home.

Baez is a little shrill, which is OK as she was young (19 years old, for this debut), but she’s not brittle. There’s power all over these traditional tracks, even through the ache. The guitar work is perfect, and for as much as there’s Village folk written all over it, there’s also a real sense of history, with diverse tunes sounding like olde English tunes, Spanish melodies, or negro spirituals.

Sublime.