BAEZ, JOAN

born Jan. 9, 1941, Staten Island, New York, N.Y., U.S. American folk singer and political activist who interested young audiences in folk music during the 1960s. The daughter of a physicist whose teaching and research took him to various communities in New York, California, and elsewhere, Baez moved often and acquired little formal musical training. Her soprano voice, usually accompanied only by her own guitar arrangements, was sometimes criticized as too pretty. However, she was in the forefront of the 1960s folk-song revival, popularizing traditional songs through her performances in coffeehouses, at music festivals, and on television and through her record albums, which were best-sellers from 1960 through 1964 and remained popular into the 1970s. An active participant in the 1960s protest movement, Baez made free concert appearances for UNESCO, civil rights organizations, and anti-Vietnam War rallies. In 1964 she refused to pay federal taxes that went toward war expenses, and she was jailed twice in 1967. Baez's recordings include Diamonds and Rust (1975), Gulf Wind (1976), Honest Lullaby (1979), Very Early Joan (1983), Speaking of Dreams (1989), Play Me Backwards (1992), and Gone from Danger (1997). Baez also wrote Daybreak (1968), her autobiography, and a memoir entitled And a Voice to Sing With (1987).