A Voice That’s Joan Baez On Her Farewell Tour…
The North American leg of legendary folk singer Joan Baez’s “Fare Thee Well” tour kicks off on Tuesday. The nearly 60-year-old performer has revealed that this tour, which runs until May 2019, will be her final one. Baez (@joancbaez) and Here & Now’s Robin Young discuss that choice and her most recent album, “Whistle Down the Wind.”
It’s up to you to decide which albums to buy. I assume that this is the final one. Furthermore, it is a component of the final tour. Thirty years ago, I asked my vocal coach whether she thought I should give up. “Your voice will tell you,” he continued.
“It’s tougher to control [my voice]. It doesn’t hurt, but the noises I want to hear aren’t coming out very often. The truth is that gravity eventually takes over everything, but it starts with my vocal chords because they are muscles and they are exhausted.”
“I’m not sure if the point was made. When we first started, our primary goal was to see whether we could make a follow-up record to the previous one, which came out almost 60 years ago. After that, everything sort of fits together, and all I can say is that it creates its own design. It would have been a lovely album with really lovely songs if it hadn’t included “Another World” and “The President Sang Amazing Grace,” for example. However, it wouldn’t have the same depth. Therefore, it’s just my luck to hear certain tunes, like the President Song, that appear out of nowhere.”
“The scope, the scope. If I’m really creative when it comes to reimagining tunes, I identify the range and then look for places where I can briefly transcend that range. However, I find it quite upsetting that I can’t hold a note up there because that eliminates several songs from the repertory.”