After 30 years of performing, Joan Baez decided it was time to get guitar and voice lessons.
Baez, probably the most recognizable female voice in folk-rock for three decades now, says she is such a perfectionist that she turned to her friend Carol McComb and to a vocal coach before she recorded her most recent album, "Ring Them Bells," which was recorded live."I just needed to strengthen the guitar playing," Baez said in a recent interview. As for her famous soprano, she claims she now has to work at it with vocalizing and scales.
"I never trained formally and I won't. For one thing, my left brain is atrophied. So I do it my way."
Speaking of "My Way," the new record features Baez singing a set of folk standards (such as Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells," Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and Janice Ian's "Jesse") with a variety of guests, including the Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dar Williams. But she downplays any similarities between it and Frank Sinatra's "Duets."
"It wasn't like, `Let's call in Bono and Frank Sinatra.' I don't have that kind of power anyway," she said. "It was really, `Who are the people who make sense to me and at least feel as though they have the same roots whether they do or not?' It was like a family."
Without her all-star support, Baez performs on Tuesday at the Red Butte Garden & Arboretum.
Though some of the songs on "Ring Them Bells" are written by Baez, she said she was unable to write a full album's worth of material. Her manager, Mark Spector, struck on the idea of having her sing some of her favorites, which were recorded during four nights' of performances at New York's The Bottom Line.
"I told him, `I'm going nuts trying to write songs. They're not coming easily. I don't like it,"' she said. "As we started to talk, it started to develop. We asked ourselves, `How do I take what I do uniquely and make it fresh?"'
They did that by rehearsing the songs well in advance, getting Baez so "totally prepared I could be spontaneous." And the efforts show, such as the a cappella sing-along with the crowd on Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Contemporary folk artist Bill Morrissey will open the show at 7:30 p.m. In case of rain, the concert will be moved to Abravanel Hall.
Tickets for the concert are $18 from ArTix outlets or by phone (355-ARTS or 355-2787). Because of the demand for those tickets, they will not be sold at the gate.