Blessed Are...
Blessed Are... | ||||
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Studio album by Joan Baez | ||||
Released | July 31, 1971 | |||
Recorded | 1971 | |||
Studio | Quadrafonic Sound Studios Nashville, Tennessee | |||
Genre |
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Length | 78:09 | |||
Label | Vanguard VSD-6570/1 | |||
Producer | Norbert Putnam | |||
Joan Baez chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Rolling Stone | (mixed) link |
Blessed Are... is the twelfth studio album (and fourteenth overall) by Joan Baez and her last with Vanguard Records, released in July 1971. It included her hit cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and songs by Kris Kristofferson, the Beatles, Jesse Winchester, and The Rolling Stones as well as a significant number of Baez' own compositions. Like its immediate predecessors, the album was recorded in Nashville and had a decidedly country feel.
The original vinyl version was released as a double album, which also included a bonus 7" 33 1⁄3 rpm record which included the songs "Maria Dolores" and Woody Guthrie's "Deportee", which she dedicated to the farmers of the world, adding "May they soon cease to be victims." On CD pressings, these two tracks are on a separate disc, as the Red Book standards prohibit fitting them on a single, 80-minute disc.
It was Baez' final studio album for Vanguard, her label of the previous eleven years, as she signed with A&M in early 1972.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Joan Baez; except where indicated
Side 1
- "Blessed Are..." – 3:03
- "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Robbie Robertson) – 3:26
- "Salt of the Earth" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:22
- "Three Horses" – 7:03
- "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz" (Jesse Winchester) – 3:07
Side 2
- "Last, Lonely and Wretched" – 3:42
- "Lincoln Freed Me Today (The Slave)" (David Patton) – 3:21
- "Outside the Nashville City Limits" – 3:20
- "San Francisco Mabel Joy" (Mickey Newbury) – 4:23
- "When Time Is Stolen" – 2:58
Side 3
- "Heaven Help Us All" (Ronald Miller) – 3:32
- "Angeline" (Mickey Newbury) – 3:37
- "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (Kris Kristofferson) – 2:58
- "Let It Be" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:48
- "Put Your Hand in the Hand" (Gene MacLellan) – 3:20
Side 4
- "Gabriel and Me" – 3:27
- "Milanese Waltz/Marie Flore" – 5:55
- "The Hitchhikers' Song" – 4:19
- "The 33rd of August" (Mickey Newbury) – 3:42
- "Fifteen Months" – 4:30
Bonus 7"
- "Maria Dolores" (Fernando García Morcillo, Jacobo Morcillo) (track on bonus 7") – 3:25
- "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" (Woody Guthrie, Martin Hoffman) (track on bonus 7") – 5:15
- "Warm and Tender Love" (2005 bonus track) – 4:06
Personnel
- Joan Baez – guitar, vocals
- Norman Blake – dobro, guitar
- David Briggs – keyboards
- Kenneth A. Buttrey – drums
- Charlie McCoy – harmonica
- Norbert Putnam – bass, arranger, producer
- Buddy Spicher – violin
- Pete Wade – guitar
- Ed Logan – tenor saxophone
- The Holladays – singers
- Technical
- Gene Eichelberger – engineer
- Dave Harris – artwork
- Jobriath – design
- Jack Lothrop – producer
- Jim Marshall – photography
Chart positions
Chart (1971) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[1] | 12 |
US Billboard 200[2] | 11 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA)[3] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 7518". RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "Joan Baez Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
- ^ "American album certifications – Joan Baez – Blessed Are". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
- v
- t
- e
- Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square (with Bill Wood and Ted Alevizos)
- Joan Baez
- Joan Baez, Vol. 2
- Joan Baez/5
- Farewell, Angelina
- Noël
- Joan
- Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time
- Any Day Now
- David's Album
- One Day at a Time
- Blessed Are...
- Come from the Shadows
- Where Are You Now, My Son?
- Gracias a la Vida: Joan Baez canta en español
- Diamonds & Rust
- Gulf Winds
- Blowin' Away
- Honest Lullaby
- Recently
- Speaking of Dreams
- Play Me Backwards
- Gone from Danger
- Dark Chords on a Big Guitar
- Day after Tomorrow
- Whistle Down the Wind
- Sacco & Vanzetti
- Carry It On
- Portrait of Joan Baez
- The First 10 Years
- The Joan Baez Ballad Book
- Hits: Greatest and Others
- The Contemporary Ballad Book
- The Joan Baez Lovesong Album
- Best of Joan C. Baez
- The Joan Baez Country Music Album
- Joan Baez: Classics
- Rare, Live & Classic
- "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
- "Copper Kettle"
- "Diamonds & Rust"
- "Farewell, Angelina"
- "Forever Young"
- "Here's to You"
- "Honest Lullaby"
- "The House of the Rising Sun"
- "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
- "Joe Hill"
- "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"
- "Lily of the West"
- "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word"
- "Mary Hamilton"
- "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
- "Reunion Hill"
- "Scarlet Tide"
- "Silver Dagger"
- "Speaking of Dreams"
- "Sweet Sir Galahad"
- "There but for Fortune"
- "We Shall Overcome"
- "What Have They Done to the Rain"
- Discography
- Albert Baez (father)
- Mimi Fariña (sister)
- David Harris (husband)
- Richard Fariña (brother-in-law)
- Joan Baez: I Am a Noise