It’s been nearly six decades since Joan Baez began her professional music career with a set at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. It’s been 55 years since she performed at the historic March On Washington, and it’s been more than 50 years since her fearlessly anti-war message made her a bonafide icon of the ’60s counterculture. Joan Baez has been performing for a long time, but her on-stage career will come to an end when she retires from “formal touring” later this year.
Before she makes her exit from the live arena, Baez will hit the road for an extensive run of tour dates from mid-September through mid-November. The singer-songwriter announced her final North American outing today, and the itinerary includes 28 shows across much of the United States and Canada. Among those dates are two-night runs at Boston’s Wang Theatre and New York City’s Beacon Theatre in September, as well as five stops in California in late October and early November. Tickets for Baez’s final tour will go on sale Friday, March 2nd.
While Baez is gearing up to retire from the road, her recording career is experiencing something of a revival. For her upcoming dates, Baez will be performing in support of her first album in 10 years, Whistle Down The Wind, which is due out on March 2nd. The forthcoming LP features a number of covers and tunes that other illustrious songwriters—such as Tom Waits, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Josh Ritter—wrote for her. According to Rolling Stone, Whistle Down The Wind was produced by Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint) during a series of sessions at United Recording Studios in Los Angeles.
“Whistle Down The Wind” (written by Tom Waits in 1992)
“I’ve left [the idea of recording more albums] more open than the touring because you just can’t … you never know,” Baez told Rolling Stone. “Maybe you’ll say, ‘Oh, my God,’ and you’ll want to do an album in other languages or some special project. But I doubt that I’ll do this process again of finding songs and doing a whole album.”
Joan Baez 2018 North American Tour:
September 11 Ithaca, New York – State Theatre
September 12 New Haven, Connecticut – Shubert Theater
September 14 Boston, MA – The Wang Theatre
September 15 Boston, MA – The Wang Theatre
September 17 Montreal, QC – Place Des Arts Maison Symphonique
September 18 Toronto, ON – Roy Thomson Hall
September 21 New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
September 22 New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
September 25 Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Theatre
September 26 Philadelphia, PA – Verizon Hall @ Kimmel Center
September 28 Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
September 29 Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center
September 30 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
October 2 Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater
October 3 Cleveland, OH – State Theatre
October 5 Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
October 6 Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre
October 24 Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
October 25 Santa Fe, NM – The Lensic Performing Arts Center
October 27 Phoenix, AZ – Celebrity Theatre
October 28 Tucson, AZ – Fox Tucson Theatre
October 30 San Diego, CA – Humphreys Concerts
November 4 Seattle, WA – Benaroya Hall
November 5 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
November 8 Eureka, CA – Arkely Center for the Performing Arts
November 10 Los Angeles, CA – Royce Hall
November 15 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
November 17 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater Oakland