REVIEW: Joan Baez, Gone From Danger (Guardian)
- Jon Steltenpohl
It's hard not to think of Joan Baez as a hippie folk singer. The image is just too strong. But, a quick listen to her latest album, Gone From Danger, and your mental image might start to change. Even before you get a chance to pop in the CD, there's a mature Baez on the cover smiling at you with a huge grin. Open the booklet and you'll find about 10 pictures of Baez at complete ease with herself with that huge beaming good. And Baez has a reason to smile. Press play, and you'll hear a great modern folk album. Gone From Danger is as accessible to the current folk music community as it is to fans of "pop" folk artists like Shawn Colvin and The Indigo Girls.
Like most of her recordings, Baez is at ease covering other people's songs. This time around, she focuses on the new crop of young folk singers. Inspired by her recent tour with "folkie du jour" Dar Williams, Baez has chosen 9 songs by such artists as Richard Shindell, Betty Elders, and Williams herself. These are all up and coming stars of the current folk scene (yes, there is a thriving folk scene), and Baez put a lot of work into choosing songs that touched her in some way.
Baez chose 3 Shindell songs for this album, and with good reason. Hew fills his songs with down to earth lyrics and rustic melodies. Elders' "Crack in the Mirror" is a chilling account of a molester's self delusions that packs the strongest emotional punch on the album. There are two songs by Williams, "February" and "If I Wrote You". "If I Wrote You" is the better of the two, and it's an intimate portrait of the self-doubt of someone secretly in love.
But, perhaps the best song on the album is the only one co-written by Baez herself. "Lily" is a bittersweet song about a second grade friend who cuts her hair and leaves a Mennonite community. Baez came from such a background, and she sings with such conviction that it's likely that the girl in the song was one of her friends. "Lily" starts with what sounds like a sampled drum beat, but it still features acoustic guitar and beautiful harmonies.
Baez brings to all of these songs the skills of a veteran musician who's not afraid to keep herself up to date. With the help of the producers from her last studio album , Play Me Backwards, Baez gives Gone From Danger a distinctively modern sound without sacrificing the emotion or style of her earlier work. All told, Gone From Danger is an album that reestablishes Baez for a new generation. She hasn't evolved enough to lose her fans, but Gone From Danger is such a good album that she's bound to attract new ones.
For more information, lyrics, and samples, visit the Joan Baez Web Page at http://baez.woz.org . To hear samples, call 1-800-890-0800 and use artist code 1061.
