1. Silver Dagger
2. East Virginia
3. Fare Thee Well (Or Then Thousand Miles)
4. House Of The Rising Sun
5. All My Trials
6. Wildwood Flower
7. Donna Donna
8. John Riley
9. Rake and Rambling Boy
10. Little Moses
11. Mary Hamilton
12. Henry Martin
13. El Preso Numero Nueve
Welcome to the sixties! Spark up a joint, drop some acid, burn your draft card, get sprayed with a fire hose, kill a commie or two, we're in for one turbulent (and far, far more interesting) decade. And what better way to start than Joan Baez? She's the archetype for the cliche female folk singer singing about Problems!
Ain't no Problems on this album, though (At least, nothing from the 20th century). The songs are all ancient folk ballads, complete with lost love and a forlorn demeanor. What a miserable time the past must have been. One can tell that the Beatles/Dylan wave of self-expression hadn't quite hit: these are all interpretations of other people's stories, and Joan changes personality and even gender to suit the song.
Musically, this album is as simple as you'd expect. Nothing but acoustic guitars and singing throughout. Baez's voice is definitely strong enough to carry the album, and displays a surprising amount of control for her debut album. Her high notes command attention, and frankly I haven't heard that much vibrato on a person's voice since that one time I saw Dream Theater in concert (He's called James LaBrie because he's cheesy as hell).
Other than that, there's not all that much to say. The song choices are pretty decent overall, especially 'House of the Rising Sun' which is just as powerful (if not more so) than the Animals version, even without all the bells and whistles. None of the songs are noticeably bad. There's great stuff on here, but the general sound of this album has been covered so many times by so many artists it's impossible to review without bias creeping in. 8/10
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