Joan Baez has as estimable a legacy as anyone who emerged in American folk music from 1960 onward, but sometimes a powerful legacy can be as much a burden as an asset. While she's enjoyed a long and eclectic career that's spanned six decades, to many
Baez will always be the earnest, crystal-voiced activist she was in the early to mid-'60s, and much of her career since has been devoted to honoring what was good about her formative years without being chained to her past.
Whistle Down the Wind, released in 2018 as
Baez was beginning what she pledged would be her last major concert tour, is the work of an autumnal
Joan Baez, but also one who hasn't turned her back on her music or her principles. The glorious soprano notes of
Baez's glory days are clearly out of reach for her here, but her phrasing remains thoughtful and emotionally strong, and if her voice isn't quite what it once was, it's still lovely and full of authority. The mood of these ten songs (which include compositions by
Tom Waits,
Josh Ritter,
Anohni, and
Mary Chapin Carpenter) is generally downbeat and sometimes doleful, but
Baez fills her performances with strength and commitment that are impressive in their quiet defiance. In songs like "The President Sang Amazing Grace" and "I Wish the Wars Were All Over,"
Baez makes clear she's still committed to a better world without attaching herself to polemics that will be dated in ten years. And the production by
Joe Henry is superb, matching
Baez's vocals with subtle but simpatico accompaniment from a studio band that knows how to shine while making room for the protagonist.
Whistle Down the Wind is a portrait of an artist who, at the age of 77, has not given up on her muse or her ideals, and while it's subtle, it's also a deeply moving piece of work that demands attention. ~ Mark Deming