Bowery Songs

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (38 ratings)
ALBUM INFORMATION
LIVE

Total Tracks: 14   Total Length: 64:26

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A good time had by all

BeBopman21

She's even better live than in the studio, I believe. And she's still so great this far into her career. If you like Baez, get this one.

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Some artists are best experienced live

DrR

Joan Baez is a national treasure. The voice is more weathered than it was in her youth but her ability to express ideas in music is deeper. A great live recording. Get it even if you have all her other work.

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Joan Baez, Bowery Songs

skipo

The hardy sound of Joan Baez makes you think about life, and it's struggles. She sings the stories of common people. The sound of this album is crisp, and clear, like the air on a cold winter day.

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Joan at her Best

Buddy

Great sound quality! That voice is still so rich. "Christmas in Washington" is a highlight. Well worth the download!

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Great Concert Record

Coolfreak

Bowery Songs captures a Joan Baez concert at its best. Excellent song selection, great sound, incredible band.

They Say All Media Guide

Bowery Songs is a collection of live tracks taken from Joan Baez’s performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York on November 6, 2004. While it is not an entire performance, there is more than enough to satisfy fans. Baez and her band take on material old — “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue,” “Farewell Angelina,” “Joe Hill,” “Deportee,” etc. — and some fine performances from her last studio outing, Dark Chords on a Big Guitar — including “Christmas in Washington” and “Rexroth’s Daughter.” But the big news for fans is that there are four unrecorded songs that have been part of Baez’s standard stage repertoire and are often requested by fans. The album’s bookend pieces are an a cappella read of “Finlandia” and a fine reading of Steve Earle’s “Jerusalem.” She also does an amazing version of Bob Dylan’s “Seven Curses” here, as well as “Dink’s Song.” This is a deeply satisfying recording, and Baez is at her very best as an interpretive singer. The read of Earle’s “Christmas in Washington” is a case in point. Baez brings a much deeper sense of history and social justice struggle to the tune than Earle does, and she brings it to bear in every line. One can hear her heartbreak as she cracks the song open, bringing the tattered banners of labor unions to the listeners’ eyes, and as she invokes the ghosts of Emma Goldman, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Woody Guthrie, among others, to the fore, one can feel the sense of hurt, betrayal, and failed promise, but also the trace of rigorous perseverance that the original does not hold. The only song that isn’t here but should be is Ryan Adams’ “In My Time of Need,” which was such a standout on Dark Chords on a Big Guitar. But this is a minor quibble, as Bowery Songs is Baez’s edgiest and most darkly seductive live album to date. – Thom Jurek

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