Whistle Down The Wind, the highly anticipated new album from Joan Baez, debuts this week at #18 on Billboard’s Top Current Albums chart and #4 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart—Baez’s strongest chart position since 1975’s Diamonds & Rust. The album is also finding success internationally debuting at #47 in the U.K., #36 in France, #6 in Sweden and #8 in Germany.
Out now on Bobolink/Razor & Tie Records (purchase here), Whistle Down The Wind is Baez’ first album in ten years and is receiving widespread attention. Watch a recent “CBS News Sunday Morning” profile here.
Critical acclaim for the new album…
“A moving reflection and summation of Baez’s life as a singer, musician, and activist.”
“Joan Baez delivers another pearl, 10 deeply felt interpretations about the human condition and the state of the world. Baez’s voice is in fine form and if her range now is, unsurprisingly, more earth angel than angelic, it serves to enhance her expressiveness, the depth of the lyrics and the strength of the melodies.”
“the reigning queen of folk music”
“The strength of the 10-track offering lies in Baez’s tone and interpretation…
Where some tracks are shrouded in despair, Baez’s steady voice keeps the spirit
of the album balanced.”
“This particular batch of folk songs amplifies Baez ever-present gift for interpretation.”
“She chooses songs that convey a sense of ambivalence about our country’s fate, as though she must now work to muster something resembling hope. That struggle is what makes this album so compelling and ultimately so rewarding.”
“She’s at least leaving us with something special to remember her by with Whistle. Produced by Joe Henry, the record features a mix of songs…that look back warmly on the past and graciously on the present.”
“Whistle Down the Wind may be Joan Baez’s best album, for it showcases her way with a song: her emotional engagement with the lyrics, her passionate delivery of the story in the song, her somber or soaring musical setting of the lyrics. There are moments of purity, clarity, and grace on Baez’s album delivered powerfully and poignantly through her vision and her voice.”
In support of the release, Baez will begin a run of North American dates starting on September 11 in Ithaca, NY. The extensive run of shows, following 50 U.K. and European dates, marks Baez’s last year of formal touring and includes stops at the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. As a special offer to fans purchasing tickets for Baez’s U.S. tour, a CD or digital download of Whistle Down The Wind is included with every ticket purchased. See below for complete tour details.
Recorded over a ten-day period in Los Angeles, Whistle Down The Wind was produced by three-time Grammy Award-winner Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint, and others) and includes songs written by Tom Waits, Anohni, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Josh Ritter and Eliza Gilkyson. Of working with Henry, Baez says, “It was a hunch on both of our parts that we could make an album together. As it turned out it was a no-brainer. We both work fast and were musically on the same wavelength. I work best with musicians who are as willing as I am to wing it and he assembled a group of players who did just that. Meaning: invent each song from scratch.”
The new music marks the first release from Baez since 2008’s Grammy-nominated album Day After Tomorrow. Its release, which ignited an extraordinary decade of achievement for Baez, coincided with the 50th anniversary of her legendary 1958 residency at the famed Club 47 in Cambridge. Milestones over the past ten years include:
Baez remains a musical force of incalculable influence. She marched on the front line of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, shined a spotlight on the Free Speech Movement, took to the fields with Cesar Chavez, organized resistance to the Vietnam War, inspired Vaclav Havel in his fight for a Czech Republic, saluted the Dixie Chicks for their courage to protest the Iraq war, stood with old friend Nelson Mandela in London’s Hyde Park as the world celebrated his 90th birthday and, most recently, protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. To this day, she continues to stand passionately on behalf of causes she embraces.
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND TRACKLIST
- Whistle Down The Wind (Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan)
- Be Of Good Heart (Josh Ritter)
- Another World (Anohni)
- Civil War (Joe Henry)
- The Things That We Are Made Of (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
- The President Sang Amazing Grace (Zoe Mulford)
- Last Leaf (Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan)
- Silver Blade (Josh Ritter)
- The Great Correction (Eliza Gilkyson)
- I Wish The Wars Were All Over (Tim Eriksen)
JOAN BAEZ LIVE
September 11—Ithaca, NY—State Theatre
September 12—New Haven, CT—Shubert Theater
September 14 & 15—Boston, MA—The Wang Theatre
September 17—Montreal, QC—Place Des Arts Maison Symphonique
September 18—Toronto, ON—Roy Thomson Hall
September 21 & 22—New York, NY—Beacon Theatre
September 25—Red Bank, NJ—Count Basie Theatre
September 26—Philadelphia, PA—Verizon Hall @ Kimmel Center for the Performing
September 28—Washington, DC—Warner Theatre
September 29—Durham, NC—Durham Performing Arts Center
September 30—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium
October 2—Ann Arbor, MI—Michigan Theater
October 3—Cleveland, OH—State Theatre
October 5—Chicago, IL—Chicago Theatre
October 6—Minneapolis, MN—State Theatre
October 24—Denver, CO—Paramount Theatre
October 25—Santa Fe, NM—The Lensic Performing Arts Center
October 27—Phoenix, AZ—Celebrity Theatre
October 28—Tucson, AZ—Fox Tucson Theatre
October 30—San Diego, CA—Humphreys Concerts
November 4—Seattle, WA—Benaroya Hall
November 5—Portland, OR—Revolution Hall
November 8—Eureka, CA—Arkely Center for the Performing Arts
November 10—Los Angeles, CA—Royce Hall
November 15—San Francisco, CA—The Masonic
November 17—Oakland, CA—Fox Theater Oakland