Joan Baez, at age 70, was gracious & luminous in a Door County Auditorium concert July 16th. Her rendition of Woody Guthries's "Deportees," which she dedicated to the immigrants of Arizona, especially moved me. I enjoyed hearing her perform, with a fine 4-piece band, Robbie Robertson's brilliant "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" for an encore. Then she made an "I'm Sleepy" sign as if to apologize for a short show (it actually lasted over two hours).
Why did Ms. Baez only have one big hit in the Sixties anyway? Some of the audience applauded the opening notes of "There But for Fortune," a Phil Ochs song that she made famous circa 1966, among other favorites. "Diamonds & Rust" got some FM-radio airplay in the late Seventies, as I recall. She didn't play that one here.
Loudon Wainwright III, dressed in short pants - due, he said, to American Airlines having lost his luggage & CDs in Chicago - was professionally entertaining at Egg Harbor on July 18th. The outdoor crowd & I sang along to his early 70s novelty hit "Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road)." Head tilted back, tongue lolling & mouth distorted for comic effect, he played 40 years of his weird music, including a tender song ("Five Years Old") for his now famous daughter Martha Wainwright.
But then Loudon disappointed us by backing out of the traditional Peg Egan PAC post-concert reception. Oh well, I couldn't have bought his 2009 Grammy-winning CD "High, Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project" from him anyway. Still, I would've liked to get an autograph from that sometime actor. Son Rufus Wainwright may be an even better songwriter and performer than his father.
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