Joan Baez remains one of the most celebrated and influential artists of her generation. Her impact on successive generations of singer/songwriters and female artists in particular is wide-reaching and crosses all genres and boundaries. Fellow artists from Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt to Jackson Browne, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Indigo Girls cite her as a primary influence on their own careers. A new studio album from Baez is an event that will be celebrated by the media.

Whistle Down The Wind, Joan's first new studio album in a decade, gathers material by some of her favorite composers, from Tom Waits ( "Whistle Down The Wind," "Last Leaf" ) and Josh Ritter ( "Be Of Good Heart," "Silver Blade" ), to Eliza Gilkyson ( "The Great Correction" ) and Mary Chapin Carpenter ( "The Things That We Are Made Of" ). Ritter's "Silver Blade" has been described by Joan as "a bookend to 'Silver Dagger' [ the first song on her self-titled debut LP of 1960 ] at the end of this nearly sixty-year career ... like something I would have picked up in Club 47 when I was 18."

Whistle Down The Wind was produced by three-time Grammy Award®-winner Joe Henry ( Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint, and others ). Henry's composition "Civil War" explores how conflict brings down individuals and society, "a swelling of emotions put to music," declares Joan.

Henry and Baez recorded Whistle Down The Wind in Los Angeles over ten days, inventing every song virtually from scratch with a core band including John Smith and Mark Golden­berg (acoustic guitars); Greg Leisz (acoustic guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, and Weissenborn); Tyler Chester and Patrick Warren (keys); bassist David Piltch; and drummer Jay Bellerose. "We both work fast and were musically on the same wavelength," Joan says. "I work best with musicians who are as willing as I am to wing it, and he assembled a group of players who did just that."

Whistle Down The Wind succeeds 2008's critically acclaimed, Grammy®-nominated Day After Tomorrow, produced by Steve Earle, the release of which coincided with the 50th anniversary of Joan's first performances at Club 47. Day After Tomorrow and Whistle Down The Wind both underscore Joan's long history of mutual mentoring, introducing songs by artists and songwriters, known and unknown, a hallmark of her recordings and performances ever since the turbulent 1960s.

"While 2018 will be my last year of formal extended touring, I am looking forward to being on the road with a beautiful new album about which I am truly proud. I welcome the opportunity to share this new music as well as longtime favorites with my audiences around the world." -

Joan Baez

Tracks

Side One:
1. Whistle Down The Wind
2. Be Of Good Heart
3. Another World
4. Civil War
5. The Things That We Are Made Of
 

Side Two:
1. The President Sang Amazing Grace
2. Last Leaf
3. Silver Blade
4. The Great Correction
5. I Wish The Wars Were All Over