Gig review: Joan Baez, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

IN PLAYING, at their invitation, for the Occupy Wall Street protesters this past Veterans’ Day, Joan Baez demonstrated that she is still drawn to stand up and challenge authority, more than 50 years into a career of distinguished resistance – so distinguished that Amnesty International have named an award after her, one that honours Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights.

Baez was clearly an inspiration to this audience too, though in a far cosier context. The core style and spirit of her music has not varied much in those 50 years and the majority of this set was the sound of the Greenwich Village coffee houses preserved because “people can’t write those sorts of songs anymore”.

Baez wears her principles very thoughtfully, demonstrating again what a shrewd interpreter of music she is through the simple, folksy but affecting likes of God Is God and Be Not Too Hard, favouring small nuggets of wisdom and common sense over sledgehammer anthems or MOR sentimentality.

There would be time enough for that later when she encored with the thoroughly overrated Imagine but mostly her performance was as subtle as the backing of her accompanists, Dirk Powell providing a dusting of banjo, mandolin and accordian, while her son Gabe Harris quietly kept time on box percussion.

Baez was charm and dignity throughout but there was levity too when she talked about her late “road manager” Vaclav Havel and her first job as a Vespa instructor. And though her set leaned on a predictable array of standards, a version of Elvis Costello’s The Scarlet Tide elicited a spontaneous “thank you” out in the crowd and she happily broke from the programme to honour an encore request for Joe Hill.

Rating: ***