An evergreen returns to the Greater Green as folk music legend Joan Baez takes the stage of the Count Basie Theatre for a Tuesday night concert.
She was there, on the scene, at so many of the pivotal moments in the cultural and sociopolitical history of modern America, from the 1959 Newport Folk Festival; her 1963 introduction of Bob Dylan; and appearance at Woodstock; marches with Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. She’s stood alongside South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Havel in their journeys from political prisoners to presidents of their nations; lent crucial early support to Amnesty International, dated Steve Jobs, and protested war in all its manifestations.
Far from being a sort of Forrest Gump accidental bystander, or just another celeb looking to piggyback on the cause du jour, Joan Baez has maintained her post on the frontlines of social justice since the era of Elvis and doo wop. And when the 75-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist returns to Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre Tuesday night, she’ll stand among the many legends of music, theater, film and broadcasting who have graced the stage of the venerable venue.
While the Staten Island-born Baez’s many impassioned stances have arguably cost her as many potential listeners as they’ve acquired, her devoted fanbase spans generations, as she’s consistently connected with young audiences over the course of a career that has outlasted scores of pop-chart flashes and flame-outs.
When she takes the Basie stage, she’ll be drawing from a rich catalog that ranges from her 1960 debut album (a long-player inducted a few years back into the Grammy Hall of Fame) to 2008’s Day After Tomorrow; a songlist that includes gold-record hits like 1975’s “Diamonds and Rust,” as well as her interpretations of composers from Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to the Band, the Stones and Ryan Adams. There are also her celebrated songs in Spanish, her proprietary versions of “Amazing Grace” and other traditional favorites, and the always-strong possibility that she’ll be debuting a new tune, spotlighting a contemporary talent, finding much to say about the issues that protrude from the daily media onslaught.
Tickets ($25 – $79.50) for the 8 p.m. show can be reserved right here.
