Released in 1965, Farewell, Angelina marked an important step forward for Joan Baez. By her fifth studio album, she had already established herself as the defining voice of the folk revival, but here she began to expand her sound and repertoire. For the first time, Baez included electric accompaniment, courtesy of Bruce Langhorne’s subtle guitar work, alongside contributions from Russ Savakus on bass and Ralph Rinzler on mandolin. The result was an album that bridged the traditional folk she was known for with the contemporary songwriting that was reshaping the genre in the mid-’60s.
The title track, a Bob Dylan composition that he himself wouldn’t release until decades later, opens the album with quiet drama. Baez’s delivery is characteristically clear and unwavering, and the electric guitar beneath her lends a modern edge without overwhelming the song. In fact, Dylan’s shadow looms large here as four of his songs appear on the record, including “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” both of which Baez interprets with a mixture of precision and warmth. Two of the Dylan selections (“Farewell, Angelina” and “Daddy, You Been on My Mind”) wouldn’t officially surface from him until 1991, giving Baez’s versions the weight of both discovery and preservation.
Yet Farewell, Angelina is hardly just a Dylan showcase. Baez also reaches out to other voices of the folk tradition. Woody Guthrie’s “Ranger’s Command” is rendered with a sense of timelessness, while Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, sung here in German as “Sagt Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind”, underscores her international social justice leanings. More personal choices, such as “Colours” by Donovan and the traditional “The River in the Pines,” round out an album that feels rooted in history while still in conversation with the present.
The new 60th anniversary vinyl reissue from Craft Recordings highlights this balance beautifully. All-analog mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio brings Baez’s soprano into sharper focus, while the supporting instrumentation comes through with warmth and detail. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing and housed in a faithfully reproduced tip-on jacket, the release restores the record’s original character while providing a much-deserved update in sound quality. Farewell, Angelina captured Baez in transition: still the pure-voiced interpreter of traditional ballads, but increasingly open to the new possibilities of folk music as it crossed into electrified and more contemporary forms. Sixty years on, it remains a pivotal moment in her career, an album that both honors where she came from and gestures toward where she was going.
