Teaming up with Steve Earle as a producer, who contributes three songs, and using modern songwriters such as Elvis Costello, Patty Griffin and Tom Waits, Joan Baez sounds completely charged on her 24th studio album. Earle does for Baez what Rick Rubin has done for Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, stripping the arrangements to their core, adhering to an innate sonic toughness, and keeping the focus primarily on the singer and the song. Baez has always had an intimidating and incredible vocal range, and even in her advanced age has plenty of notes she can still reach and inflect with empathy. Eliza Gilkyson’s “Rose of Sharon” sounds like an English traditional and Baez delivers it with vocal finesse than never overextends itself. Costello and T Bone Burnett’s “Scarlet Tide” similarly retains a traditional and alluring gait. Waits’ title track, written from the point of view of a tired, scared soldier, is kept sparse with just Baez and her expert acoustic guitar picking delivering a sad lonely prayer. Powerful stuff.

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