Craft Recordings have just released Live At Woodstock from Joan Baez, the first streamable recording of her nearly hour-long set at the 1969 festival.
Although most often associated with the folk movement of the sixties, Baez’s career has spanned over six decades, famous for her renditions of everyone from Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder.
Craft Recordings have just released Live At Woodstock, the first publicly available recording of an iconic Joan Baez set 50 years ago.
The recording captures Baez’s set on the rainy first night of Woodstock, taking the stage at almost 1am with a visibly pregnant belly. At the time, the singer’s husband, David Harris, had recently been arrested for draft resistance and his incarceration is a prevailing theme throughout the show. In between songs, Baez tells stories, at one point dedicating Joe Hill – a 1936 folk song about a trade union activist – as a tribute to Harris.
In her 1987 memoir, And a Voice to Sing With, Baez recalled of her performance at Woodstock:
“I just stood up there in front of the residents of the golden city who were sleeping in the mud and each other’s arms, and I gave them what I could at the time. And they accepted my songs. It was a humbling moment, in spite of everything. I’d never sung to a city before.”
Live At Woodstock is available now on all streaming and digital platforms.
