I think the back cover blurb sums up what's going on here as well as anything - "As a tribute to the great singing talent of
Joan Baez, Judy Nash has assembled twelve songs closely associated with that
most prominent of folk singers and performs them here with an authenticity and
sincerity which could only be equalled by the subject of this tribute - Joan
Baez". Before I get my knives out though, I'm going to own up to the fact I
have no great love for Joan Baez. For all the plaudits and all the acclaim
there's always been something overly worthy in the shrill vibrato of her vocal
that gets under my skin. And not in a good way; I've simply never been able to
take to her. In saying that though, I'm perfectly happy to acknowledge that the
problem is mine, not Joan's - after all, I adore Joanna Newsome, but I know full
well she can divide a room just by opening her mouth and then clear it after a
few minutes singing. Horses for courses I guess.
As more of an interpreter of other people's work
than renowned as a songwriter in her own right, Baez has a back catalogue
littered with a broad spectrum of cover versions that can provide rich pickings
for a tribute album like this. But although no one is arguing that the tracklist
on here represents a 'Best Of Baez', I have to take issue with that title; to
these ears 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down', 'Let It Be', 'Joe Hill', 'What
Have They Done To The Rain' and 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' et al had already
been made famous by other people - usually their own authors - and using 'Joan
Baez' songs as a unifier makes for a tenuous link that's only really going to
work if some effort is put to trying to recreate them as Baez herself recorded
them.
And to an extent, this is what they do, though as
far as the vocals go it's to the extent that Nash sounds like she's been told to
emulate Baez, but when it comes down to it she's found that she doesn't actually
want to. Baez's vocal styling that so grate my nerves are attempted in part and
Nash does a decent enough job when she does, but then she also alternates
between a more sedate, straight West coast vocal that's more to my liking but
which makes for rather an uneven, schizophrenic listen; it's telling that three
of the Dylan songs on here subsequently appeared on MFP's 1974 'Tribute To Bob
Dylan' album with no reference to Baez whatsoever and I think I'd have enjoyed
them more if her name as a point of reference has been taken out of the equation
completely.
It's the bunch that are backing her (of whom no
information is provided at all on the cover so I'm guessing they're session
players being paid by the hour) that present the bigger problem in that, on some
of the songs at least, they sound all at sea and play like they only have a
passing familiarity with the source material. Songs get over egged and
coathanger stiff with the title track being a particularly horrible example of
overloading as it waddles along under the weight of an arrangement of drum
fills, guitar fills, keyboard fills and a Greek chorus of harpies wailing away
in a different key on backing vocals - it's Joan's version with everything
turned up to 10 and, just like that American civil war themed cover, it's
horrid.
They're better on the quieter numbers where they've
got less to do but in truth I get the distinct impression throughout that Nash
and the band recorded their parts separately with neither having much idea what
the other was doing and they were then brought together at the mix where they
gel as well as seabirds and oilspills; for every ounce of feeling or emotion
that Nash injects, the band siphon off two to leave her floundering in the
slick. Ultimately, this is the sound of rushed
competence that does neither Joan justice nor Judy any favours; at least I can
say that Baez irritates me, this one leaves me feeling not very much at all
really and it's another one of 'those' releases that I can't understand why
anyone would want to buy. Except maybe Judy Nash's* mum.
* A word too on Ms Nash; the name raised my
suspicions as soon as I read it, being as it is a very pat and era derived
amalgamation of Judy Collins and Graham Nash. A bit of research online reveals
that these songs are the only thing she ever recorded/released, mainly because
'Judy' is in fact Clare Torry who in in 1972, was still a jobbing session singer
yet to achieve fame and (delayed) fortune by improvising a stunning wail of
agony and ecstasy on Pink Floyd's 'The Great Gig In The Sky' a year later. Well
I never.
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