Joan Baez - by Elizabeth Thomson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Since she stepped onstage unannounced at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Joan Baez has occupied a singular place in popular music. Within three years, she had recorded three best-selling albums and had embarked on a tour of southern US campuses, playing to integrated audiences in an era of segregation. When Time magazine chronicled the folk revival in November 1962, her portrait was on the cover. Now approaching 80, Baez has stepped down from the stage following a worldwide farewell tour and a final Grammy-nominated album. The Last Leaf is a celebration of a timeless figure whose music and influence will endure long after her voice is silenced. The Discography is by Grammy-nominated music historian Arthur Levy. Joan Baez is the recipient of the 2020 Woody Guthrie Prize.

Book Synopsis

"Evocative... the definitive biography" - Michael Simmons, MOJO.

A celebration of a timeless figure whose music and influence will endure long after her voice is silenced.

Since she stepped onstage unannounced at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Joan Baez has occupied a singular place in popular music.

Within three years, she had recorded three best-selling albums and had embarked on a tour of southern US campuses, playing to integrated audiences in an era of segregation. When Time magazine chronicled the folk revival in November 1962, her portrait was on the cover. Her voice was "as lustrous and rich as old gold." She has mentored generations of singer-songwriters, most famously Bob Dylan.

But Joan Baez has always been much more than simply a singer. Even before she stood on the podium beside Dr Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, her voice was raised in sorrow and anger as well as in song. The causes for which she has campaigned are legion and it's no surprise that she was chosen to open Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. In 1993, amid the siege of Bosnia, she donned a flak jacket to sing for the citizens of Sarajevo offering, as so many times before and since, "an act of love, sharing, witness and music".

Now approaching 80, Baez has stepped down from the stage following a worldwide farewell tour and a final Grammy-nominated album. The Last Leaf is a celebration of a timeless figure whose music and influence will endure long after her voice is silenced. The Discography is by Grammy-nominated music historian Arthur Levy.

Joan Baez is the recipient of the 2020 Woody Guthrie Prize.

An exhibition at Boston's Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame is currently open until the end of July.

Review Quotes

"Author Thomson is a sharp listener, her evocative musical descriptions singing along with her subject's songs. As a young girl she was inspired by Baez, and with decades of personal access has written the definitive biography" - Michael Simmons, MOJO.

'Exhaustively researched...pack[s] a hell of a lot into its 224 pages, miraculously managing to include a comprehensive discography, filmography and bibliography and a plethora of photographs that really do enhance the text.' - Living Tradition Magazine.

About the Author

Elizabeth Thomson has written articles and interviews in newspapers and magazines around the world, including The Times and MOJO. A contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, Thomson is also the editor of Conclusions on the Wall: New Essays on Bob Dylan and the co-editor of The Dylan Companion.