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| Joan Baez at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo credit: Martin Harris) |
The last time Joan Baez took to the stage of the Royal
Albert Hall was 10 years ago, during a tour celebrating the fifth decade of her
storied career. Baez’s return to the venue on Monday night also marked a
significant, though rather more bittersweet, occasion: the London stop on what
she’s announced will be her final world tour, one which will continue in Europe
throughout the summer and then head to
the US in the Autumn. The tour accompanies the release of Baez’s fine new studio
album, Whistle Down the Wind [review], a modest, beguilingly humble
work that lightly touches some of the abiding concerns of her career, one in which activism and
artistry have, of course, always been intimately interconnected. Taking
its cue from the album, the concert itself also avoided any sense of
grandstanding or any big, forced statements. Instead, Baez placed the focus
firmly on the music, letting the songs – old or new, political or deeply
personal – speak for themselves.
Baez is an artist who invariably creates an exceptionally
warm and inclusive atmosphere for her audience, and she did so here from the
moment she arrived on stage, apologising for her “lateness” (about five minutes
or so!) with the confession “I forgot my lipstick.” She opened the show solo,
performing Phil Ochs’ "There But for
Fortune”, Steve Earle’s “God is God” and Dylan’s “Farewell Angelina” as a trio that
harked back to the stark power of her first performances - a girl, a guitar, a commanding voice singing potent words - before being joined by what she
jokingly referred to as her “big band,” an outfit comprising only her son, percussionist Gabriel Harris, and multi-instrumentalist
Dirk Powell. The all-acoustic set-up brought the Whistle Down the Wind songs to vivid life, with a spellbinding take on Josh Ritter’s
neo-folk ballad “Silver Blade” and a stately, deeply moving performance of Mary
Chapin Carpenter’s ode to memory and mindfulness, “The Things That We Are Made Of," among the stand-outs.
Fresh, supple textures were also added to standards such as
a newly-relevant “Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” a stunning, dramatic “The House of the Rising
Sun” and an intense “Seven Curses,” Baez’s lower, weathered tones, with
occasional rationed jumps to her higher register, finding new depths in the familiar
material. Perhaps the only disappointment was “Silver Dagger,” drained of some
its tension here in a more meandering arrangement that showcased
Powell’s fiddle-playing. On the other hand, the contributions of the young
singer Grace Sturmberg, who added ghostly harmonies to a haunting “Diamonds and
Rust” and youthful zest to a rollicking “Darlin' Cory," were terrific.
Throughout, Baez seemed touchingly awed at the audience response, and her affection
for the “beautiful, gorgeous” venue was palpable, especially as she recalled
her first time performing there in the early ‘60s and her inclusion of the English
music hall song “Isn’t it Grand, Boys?” in her set. “I got told off for singing ‘bloody’. Well,
times have changed.”
Times have changed – are changing – but the greatness of Baez’s
shows is that they offer us links to the past without ever feeling like mere
nostalgia-fests. Nowhere was that clearer than in a section that began with, yes, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” – which Baez dedicated to the
Florida students currently challenging the NRA – before progressing though Zoe Mulford’s hymnal “The President
Sang Amazing Grace” and ending with a rousing “Joe Hill.”
Audience singalongs were encouraged from “It’s All Over Now
Baby Blue” onwards, and by the time the show reached its climax, which included a joyous,
cathartic “Gracias A La Vida,” a tender “Imagine” and a stirring “The Night
They Drove Old Dixie Down,” these singalongs could be guaranteed without any
prompting. Interestingly, no direct reference was made to the tour’s status as
Baez’s last, and the addition of some new UK dates in 2019 suggests – happily –
that this farewell tour may in fact turn out to be “a long goodbye”. Perhaps
the closest that Baez came to acknowledging the significance of the tour was
her repetition of a lyric in the final song that she performed, words from “The
Boxer” that resonated as a statement of her shining legacy of activism and endurance: “I am leaving, I am leaving/But the fighter
still remains.”
Set List
There But for Fortune
God is God
Farewell Angelina
Whistle Down the Wind
Silver Blade
It’s All Over Now Baby
Blue
Deportees (Plane Wreck
at Los Gatos)
The Things That We Are
Made Of
Diamonds and Rust
Me and Bobby McGee
Another World
The Times They Are
A-Changin’
The President Sang
Amazing Grace
Joe Hill
Seven Curses
Silver Dagger
Darlin’ Cory
Gracias a la Vida
Imagine
The Night They Drove
Old Dixie Down
The Boxer
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