Joan Baez’s 2012 performance at the Esalen Institute’s 50th anniversary was a homecoming. The folk legend first came to Monterey County in 1961 when she was 19, having already risen to fame two years earlier at the Newport Folk Festival. Instead of hitting the road and growing her fame, Baez lived between Big Sur and Carmel Valley, on and off, throughout the ’60s. When she was around, she was active in the community; Baez co-led the New Folk Workshop in 1964 and was involved in each of the seven installments of Celebration at Big Sur, which brought Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, John Sebastian and several other big names to perform.
“There really isn’t any other place in the world like [Monterey County],” Baez said before opening the 2012 show with “Diamonds and Rust.”
Politics and music have always gone together for her. In 1963, Baez performed “We Shall Overcome” at the March on Washington. In 2011, Baez performed a set for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“In the early ’60s, I would go around to all the black schools down South to play for the kids because they couldn’t come to see me play,” Baez said at the 2012 Esalen show. Then she delivered a crockpot of favorites, including “Frenario,” “Stagger Lee,” Stephen Foster’s “Church Song” and “Lily of the West” (featuring Baez’s niece Pearl Bryan on backing vocals). The iconic singer-songwriter followed with her beloved “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
“People seem to adopt that song wherever I go,” Baez said. “I played it at Woodstock and I played it for Martin Luther King. I dedicate it to the people and the land.”
Friday, the Carmel Valley History Center’s new exhibit, “Joan Baez: Carmel Valley and Beyond” – which features the work of photojournalist Bob Fitch – is dedicated to Baez’s Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, which she opened in Carmel Valley 50 years ago.
JOAN BAEZ: CARMEL VALLEY AND BEYOND opening reception. 3-6pm Friday, Aug. 28. Carmel Valley History Center, 77 West Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley. Donations appreciated. 659-5715
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