Review: Joan Baez at Symphony Hall

Joan Baez, now well into her late seventies, still has the voice of a songbird ushering in the spring. Her hair now may be sharp white, her frame a bit frail.  But both her singing and her renowned opinions are still evident, still powerful.

She’s been performing now for more than 60 years. And though she never spit out her anger like Dylan or crafted soaring imagery like Joni Mitchell, she held her own both as an anti-establishment figure and  as a musician who could land feet first on the hit parade time after time.

This is her last tour, she told a sold out audience, and in a tight evening of just under 90 minutes, she never really concentrated on her own music but those of the modern American songbook:  material from ex-partner Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, 1930’s folk singer Earl Robinson, Woody Guthrie.  And she paid credence to her Latina roots with a rendition of Gracias a La Vida, the Spanish flowing like honey. The only dip in quality being a pale imitation of the wistful The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band.

Fortunately she didn’t  use Symphony Hall  as a lecture theatre for political science.  But she did allude wryly, gently, to current issues such as President Trump, the women’s movement and immigration. And why not?  She’s never shied away from attacking big questions about who we are and where we’re going.

And if this is the last tour (who knows…?), a graceful elderly voice may be silenced as she puts her feet up. Somehow, though, we doubt it.