With
Blessed Are...,
Joan Baez found herself with a hit single on the charts. That song, a cover of
Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," is just one of the many surprises on
Blessed Are... Once again using some of Nashville's finest pickers and songwriters,
Baez runs the gamut of such influences as
the Beatles,
the Rolling Stones, Mickey Newberry,
Jesse Winchester,
Stevie Wonder and, of course, herself, while sounding nothing more than like
Joan Baez always has. Great music, and a lot of it, too, for when it was released on vinyl, it was a double album with a special 7" single included. Altogether, 22 tracks of some of
Joan's finest. ~ James Chrispell