Joan Baez

Bio

Artist

Following a record breaking year of touring in 2016, Joan was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and inducted by Jackson Browne at the Hall’s annual gala on April 7, 2017. Joan’s first solo exhibition of her paintings just concluded in Mill Valley, CA. T he collection of paintings celebrated “Mischief Makers”—portraits of people who have brought about social change through nonviolent action—the risk-taking visionaries.

2016 began with a celebration of Joan’s 75t h birthday at New York’s Beacon Theater where she was joined by a cast of musical colleagues including Paul Simon, Jackson Browne and Emmylou Harris. The evening was filmed for the PBS series, Great Performances, and premiered in May.

The recent past has included the induction of Joan’s 1960 debut LP by the National Recording Academy into the Grammy® Hall Of Fame and its selection in 2015 by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

In 2015, she received Amnesty International’s highest honor, its Ambassador of Conscience Award, in recognition of her leadership in the fight for human rights. It follows the presentation to her of the inaugural Joan Baez Award for Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights at Amnesty International’s 50t h Anniversary gathering in 2012.

She remains a musical force of nature of incalculable influence – marching on the front line of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, inspiring Vaclav Havel in his fight for a Czech Republic, singing on the first Amnesty Interna tional tour and more recently, standing alongside Nelson Mandela celebrating his 90t h birthday in London’s Hyde Park. She shined a spotlight on the Free Speech Movement, took to the fields with Cesar Chavez, organized resistance to the Vietnam War, then forty years later saluted the Dixie Chicks for their courage to protest the Iraq war. Her earliest recordings fed a host of traditional ballads into the rock vernacular, before she unselfconsciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in 1963, beginning a tradition of mutual mentoring that continues to this day.

Day After Tomorrow , her 2008 album was praised by critics and nominated for a Grammy, followed by the PBS American Masters premier of her life story, J oan Baez: How Sweet The Sound .

“Mother Nature has grown weary of our selfish disregard for all she tries to offer and she is angry. I fear for the earth my grandchild will inherit, as I can’t imagine her life will be anything approaching the hopes we have for her and the shining dreams she may have for herself. We won’t know if it’s too late for radical action to keep this globe inhabitable unless we try it. I’m pleased to be a part of this evening’s wake-up call to all people who cherish the sound of a meadowlark and who are willing to fight for its right to sing.”

– Joan Baez