Joan Baez. Whistle Down the Wind. Proper.
★★★★
There is a disconnect between the cover of Joan Baez's 25th studio album, showing the folk queen (77) beaming and radiant, and its 10 songs about mortality and war.
Baez is a more playful character than is often painted, but her calling card has always been gravitas: earnest peace anthems, fearless campaigning.
On her final record, she finds a just balance between private and public personae through a set of covers.
The years have added grain and intimacy to Baez's magisterial voice. She finds the tenderness in Tom Waits tracks and the forgiveness in Mary Chapin Carpenter's The Things That We Are Made Of, before the folk standard I Wish the Wars Were All Over concludes in simple, utopian style.
- Neil Spencer. Guardian News & Media
