Word: baez
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...those who recall Joan Baez's entrance upon the Cambridge scene late in 1958, her first solo record offers proof that she is moving way out. Just where she will go is not clear, since she is still rather unknown outside of coffee houses, the Gate of Horn, and the Newport Folk Festival. But to those who must listen to folk music, Joan Baez is a welcome combination of robustness of voice, delicacy of expression, and tasteful guitar accompaniment...
Most of the popular folksingers today seem to think of themselves as the missing link between the hills, or the cotton fields, or Child, or wherever those songs come from, and the great Northern hordes clutching ticket stubs. If Miss Baez is no missing link, at least she is a quiet liason. Neither overly ethnic, nor over-arranged, she sings in a clear, narrative manner and her control of her extraordinarily rich voice achieves a highly dramatic effect...
...folk music, Fare Thee Well, with the melody of Dave Gude, a folksinger from Martha's Vineyard, and The House of the Rising Sun, which immediately follows it. Fare Thee Well is a moving declaration of a lover's farewell and vow to faithfulness, and Miss Baez's innocence and simplicity of delivery seem to embody that feminine virtue. Equally convincing, however, is the latter song, a ballad of a fallen woman, sung to a Negro tune widely known as Black Girl...
Some of the most delightful moments of the evening came in songs which Miss Baez and Mr. von Schmidt sang together. Mr. von Schmidt revealed himself an adept at the harmonica, and both singers played on a cylinder of paper which makes a sound doubtless rarely before heard in the civilized world. At one point Miss Baez discarded one of these instruments by tossing it into the audience--it was a movement of incredible grace, a grace that is evident in her whole bearing, even when she is standing still...
...Baez-von Schmidt concert was a particularly enjoyable affair, combining two excellent folk singers, whose songs and whose styles could not possibly be any more diverse...