Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez born January 9 1941 is an American folk singer songwriter and activist Baez has a distinctive vocal style with a strong vibrato Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival She began her recording career in 1960 and achieved immediate success Her first three albums Joan Baez Joan Baez Vol 2 and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status and stayed on the charts for two years Baez had a popular hit song with Diamonds Rust and hit covers of Phil Ochss There but for Fortune and The Bands The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Other songs associated with Baez include Farewell Angelina Love Is Just a FourLetter Word Joe Hill Sweet Sir Galahad and We Shall Overcome She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence civil rights human rights and the environment Baez performed publicly for over 52 years releasing over 30 albums Fluent in Spanish as well as in English she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages She is regarded as a folk singer although her music has diversified since the 1960s encompassing everything from folk rock and pop to country and gospel music Although a songwriter herself Baez is generally regarded as an interpreter of other peoples work having recorded songs by The Allman Brothers Band The Beatles Jackson Browne Bob Dylan Woody Guthrie The Rolling Stones Pete Seeger Paul Simon Stevie Wonder and many others In recent years she has found success interpreting songs of modern songwriters such as Ryan Adams Steve Earle and Natalie Merchant Description above from the Wikipedia article Joan Baez licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia