Joan Baez and the Day After Tomorrow

[bigtree]

March 25, 2009



It's striking, at first, to hear Joan Baez describe somebody as being "a little left" of her.

The woman is, after all, a leading voice of the American folk music revival of the late 1950s -- a movement firmly ingrained in socialist politics. Baez is sure to go down as an icon of the left wing.

An unrelenting peace activist and antiwar protester, she took on the war in Iraq with the same righteous passion that she brought to the table when protesting the Vietnam War decades before. She has also been a fervent campaigner of civil liberties and gay and lesbian rights, as well as a dedicated environmentalist and an anti-death penalty activist.

So when Baez, 68, describes politically crusading singer-songwriter Steve Earle -- who produced her latest album Day After Tomorrow -- as being "a little tiny bit to the left of me," that's a comment that leaps up and announces itself.

"I call him Mr. Pinko and he likes that," she jokes.


read more: http://www.canada.com/entertainment/books/Baez+still+fiery+years+later/1426576/story.html


Joan and Steve