Joan Baez: Blessed Are...

Blessed Are... (Aug. 1971) was a gold-selling double album that spawned a hit in Baez's cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," reaching #3 on the Billboard chart. I still haven't met a Band fan that enjoys this version, where Baez turns General Robert E. Lee into a steamboat or something (the Robert E. Lee). She also uses the name "Stonewall" in her version instead of "Stoneman". General George Stoneman led the Union cavalry attacks on the confederate/rebel Danville and Richmond railroad in the winter after Appomattox, as referred to in the line "'til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again" in the lyrics. Brigadier General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was a leader for the rebels in their war for Southern independence...

The single release of Baez' cover version reached #3 on the US lists and #6 in the UK in 1971. A live version from Joan Baez was included on the US #34 album From Every Stage (Joan Baez, 1976, A&M 6506).

There are quite a few best-of and compilation albums with Baez doing this song, e.g. Golden Hour (Joan Baez, 1972, Pye 843), Greatest Hits (Joan Baez, 1973, Vanguard), Hits - the Greatest & Others (Joan Baez, 1973, Vanguard VSD-79332), Banjoman (Various Artists Soundtrack, 1975, Sire 7527), The Best of Joan Baez (Joan Baez, 1977, A&M 64665), The Joan Baez Country Music Album (Joan Baez, 1979, Vanguard 105), Classics, Vol. 8 (Joan Baez, 1987, A&M 75021-2506-2), Rare, Live & Classic (Joan Baez, 1993, Vanguard VCD3-125/27), and Ring Them Bells (Joan Baez, 1995, Grapevine 208).

Tracks

1. Blessed Are
2. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (253K)
3. Salt of the Earth
4. Three Horses
5. Brand New Tennessee Waltz
6. Last Lonely & Wretched
7. Lincoln Freed Me Today
8. Outside the Nashville City
9. San Francisco Mabel Joy
10. When Time is Stolen
11. Heaven Help Us All
12. Angeline
13. Help Me Make It Through the Night
14. Let It Be
15. Put Your Hand in the Hand
16. Gabriel and Me
17. Milanese Waltz/Marie Flore
18. Hitchhiker's Song
19. 33rd of August
20. Fifteen Months
21. Plane Wreck at Los Gatos
22. Maria Dolores