More of the Music of Joan Baez
Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Joan Baez
This post was written in 2016 or so. It’s the story of the breakthrough pressing we discovered in our shootout. Here are some others from that year.
Wonderful sound — rich, full, warm, and sweet. The vocals are full-bodied and breathy. The acoustic guitars area actually fairly natural for a pop recording from 1975.
Play Jesse on side two to hear the lovely space of the studio, as well as more harmonic extension on the acoustic instruments.
Watch out for track two. The EQ on the vocal is always a problem.
Our full Hot Stamper commentary can be found here.
What to Listen For
This copy has the kind of sound we look for in a top quality Singer Songwriter album. A few qualities to listen for:
Immediacy in the vocals (so many copies are veiled and distant);
Natural tonal balance (most copies are at least slightly brighter or darker than ideal; ones with the right balance are the exception, not the rule);
Good solid weight (so the bass sounds full and powerful);
Spaciousness (the best copies have wonderful studio ambience and space);
And last but not least, transparency, the quality of being able to see into the studio, where there is plenty of musical information to be revealed in this sophisticated Folkie Pop recording from 1975.
The sound varies quite a bit from track to track, no doubt a result of each recording having to be tailored to the different groups of studio cats and the necessity for various overdubs — strings, pedal steel guitars, even some tasteful(!) synths.
Further Reading