By Kiesly Jameson
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Joan Chandos Baez (/baɪz/ BYZE, Spanish: [ˈbaes]; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums.
Baez is generally regarded as a folk singer, but her music has diversified since the counterculture era of the 1960s and encompasses genres such as folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in 1960 and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2 and Joan Baez in Concert, all achieved gold record status. Although a songwriter herself, Baez generally interprets others’ work, having recorded many traditional songs and songs written by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie, Violeta Parra, the Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, and many others. She was one of the first major artists to record the songs of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s; Baez was already an internationally celebrated artist and did much to popularize his early songwriting efforts. Her tumultuous relationship with Dylan later became the subject of songs from both and generated much public speculation. On her later albums she has found success interpreting the work of more recent songwriters, including Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant, and Joe Henry.
Baez’s acclaimed songs include “Diamonds & Rust” and covers of Phil Ochs‘s “There but for Fortune” and the Band‘s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down“. She is also known for “Farewell, Angelina“, “Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word“, “Forever Young“, “Here’s to You“, “Joe Hill“, “Sweet Sir Galahad” and “We Shall Overcome“. Baez performed fourteen songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights, and the environment. Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7, 2017.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
A buck dance, or buckdance, generally refers to a dance done solo. For instance, the buck-and-wing is a solo tap dance that originated in the South. The term also may have come from a ceremonial dance performed by a Native American wearing the costume of a male animal such as a deer or antelope, known as a buck. “Buckdancer’s choice,” then, would seem to refer to a solo dancer’s own style or choice of dance to be performed.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
You may travel abroad in a carriage whose name read backward or forward is always the same.
Gig (a light, two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by a single horse)
Died
- William Carter (printer, hanged for printing lewd pamphlets) –
- Tom Longboat (runner) –
Born
- Catharine Parr Traill (writer) –
- John Knowles Paine (composer) –
- Gracie Fields (comedienne) –
- Simone de Beauvoir (novelist) –
- Richard Nixon (37th U.S. president) –
- Fernando Lamas (actor) –
- Judith Krantz (author) –
- Bart Starr (football player) –
- Joan Baez (singer) –
- Jimmy Page (guitarist) –
- Sir Alec Jeffreys (geneticist) –
- Crystal Gayle (singer) –
- J. K. Simmons (actor) –
- Joely Richardson (actress) –
- Dave Matthews (musician) –
- Catherine Middleton (Duchess of Cambridge) –
Events
- Ivan the Terrible of Russia, suspecting a revolt in the city of Novgorod, captured the city and executed many of its inhabitants –
- Connecticut became the fifth state to join the U.S. –
- First successful U.S. balloon flight was completed in Philadelphia, PA, by Jean Pierre Blanchard –
- Mississippi seceded from the Union (U.S. Civil War) –
- U.S. Forces invaded Luzon, Philippines (WW II) –
- U.N. headquarters opened in New York City –
- U.S. and Japan concluded a formal agreement for the final settlement of U.S. postwar economic assitance to Japan –
- U.S. spacecraft Surveyor VII made a successful landing on the moon –
- The Queen Elizabeth, luxury ocean liner, was gutted by fire in Hong Kong harbor –
- 5.9 earthquake shook eastern Canada and New England –
- 5.7 earthquake struck Miramichi, New Brunswick –
- NBA’s Toronto Raptors became the first team to miss all free throw attempts in a game –
- Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone –
- A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the shore of Eureka in Northern California –
- A venomous yellow-bellied sea snake was found on shore in Newport Beach, California. This was the fifth recorded sighting of the snake species in California history, and the first outside of an El Niño year. Scientists believe that rising ocean temperatures may have been a factor. The snake typically lives in tropical water, spending its whole life at sea; it does not go on shore unless it is ill. –
Weather
- 28.5” snow, Olympia, Washington –
- Columbia River froze at Portland, Oregon, until January 26th –
- Citrus freeze in S. California –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
