The lady still brings 'em to their feet - from FOLKWAX ezine:
Joan Baez Live
Aladdin Theater
Portland, Oregon
By Bob Gersztyn
Joan Baez
"Hey gorgeous!" one of the audience members yelled out.
"Thank you, I thrive on adulation." Joan Baez responded.
It was hard to believe that this was the same woman who made her debut as an 18-year-old ingénue, at the Newport Folk Festival back in 1959, when Folk was king. She looked as youthful as she did when I saw her at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles back in 1982.
Her set was flawless. She was accompanied by Erik Della Penna on steel lap and a variety of other guitars and stringed instruments and Graham Maby on electric and acoustic bass and guitar, as well as backup vocals. From the opening barn-burning rendition of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to the final bring-down-the-house a cappella version of "Amazing Grace" that had the audience singing along, she had the crowd in the palm of her hand.
She told the audience that this was her twenty-third concert tour, and after a short break she would be heading to Europe for that leg. She dove head first into "Scarlett Tide," an anti-war song penned by Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett. "Bring the boys back home!" she cried.
"Wildwood Flower" was a retro tune reaching back to her first Vanguard album. "I hope that there are some people here who don't know what a record is," Baez commented during the prelude to some of the finest finger-picking that her dexterous digits dished out for the night.
Dylan's dirge "With God On Our Side" had Della Pena playing some fine lap guitar, as the crowd stood to their feet hysterically clapping at its conclusion. "Thank you, his Lordship, good write." Baez said, as she told a story about how Dylan came backstage after her performance and told her that she was "the voice and he was the writer."
Then Baez segued into a story about the reason why she hates photographers. "I was in Spain after the fall of Franco and a crowd of photographers were following me everywhere. I finally got fed up with it, so I shooed them away, but one remained and still kept following me. So I gave him the sign of the crooked elbow, which he photographed. The photo ended up on the front page of all the newspapers with the headline that I was doing this to the entire country of Spain. The result was that I had to make a public apology."
"Long Black Veil" was a Country and Western song that Baez said she learned from Johnny Cash while he was still married to his first wife and lookin' at June Carter. By the time that she was performing Sam Cooke's "Stand By Me" she was dancing with her guitar. Then she explained why rich people send their daughters off to finishing school - "It's so they can learn to say 'that's nice,' instead of 'fuck you!'"
Dar Williams' song "Neighbors" was introduced with a story of how Williams once came backstage after Baez's performance and told her "that she was delighted that she could do her song, as something she didn't write." Baez used a resonator guitar with Maby on electric bass.
The power of her voice grew with each song until she performed Steve Earle's "Christmas In Washington" and bellowed out "so come back Woody Guthrie." "We fade away into the ozone," Baez announced as she began talking about "Joe Hill." This was one of the songs that she was immortalized on vinyl singing at Woodstock. Tonight Della Penna accompanied her on lap steel guitar along with Maby on stand up bass.
There were people sitting in the aisles and standing up against the walls for this second-night sold-out show at the beautiful Aladdin Theater in northeast Portland, Oregon. When she performed Leonard Cohen's classic "Suzanne," the roof nearly lifted off the foundation. Then the band left the stage as Baez took off her guitar and sang "This Is My Home" a cappella.
Baez put her guitar back on as she began talking about her sister Mimi's hippie wedding to Sir Galahad, the late Richard Farina. Then she went from "Jack-A-Roe" to "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," another Dylan classic. The poetess predicated some self-penned poetry that began "Rumpty Dumpty sat on a wall/Rumpty Dumpty had a great fall. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The allusions to the current regime controlling Washington led to a flashback to an era that dominated the Baby Boomers' thinking 40-plus years ago with Dylan's "A Hard Rains Gonna Fall." Their rendition was excellent to say the least. She got the crowd standing on their feet and singing along, with just an acoustic guitar and her voice. The woman is remarkable, even in her seventh decade.
The last song of the show, before a short encore, was Steve Earle's "Jerusalem":
"I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say."
After she and the band finished to thunderous applause, she thanked everyone as she walked off the stage.
After another chorus of thunderous applause, foot stomping, and whistling, Baez walked back on stage alone and performed as beautiful of a rendition of "Amazing Grace" as I've ever heard. When the lights came on, I asked some of the audience around me how they felt about the show, they responded with everything from "Hallelujah" to "Fantastic!"
It truly was and she truly is.
Bob Gersztyn is a senior contributing editor at FolkWax. You may contact Bob at
folkwax@visnat.com.
Joan Baez in concert - review
