Her first album in six years finds Joan Baez exploring the work of some of the finest writers in contemporary Americana, including songsmiths like Greg Brown, Josh Ritter, Gillian Welch and Natalie Merchant. In the past, it could be said that Baez was, on occasion, let down by her choice of material, but no such charge can be sustained here. And the voice is as transfixing as ever.
Joan is at her best with a good story in hand, which is why she can give Gillian Welch’s ‘Caleb Meyer’ such a distinctive reading. Somewhat grittier than the original, it’s one of the album’s highlights.
One detects throughout, from her intonation and command of the material, a great sense of empathy with her subjects. Nowhere is this more in evidence than on the album’s closing track, Steve Earle’s ‘Christmas In Washington’.Though written in 1997, and about the previous holder of the highest office, it still works as a stinging indictment of the current American political scene.
While Dark Clouds… may not be an album that fully engages on first hearing, repeated plays confirm that Joan Baez still has a voice and a message worth listening to.