Blessed Are...

About Blessed Are...

Blessed Are... is a 1971 album by Joan Baez, and her last with Vanguard Records. It included her hit cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and songs by Kris Kristofferson, the Beatles, Jesse Winchester and The Rolling Stones, as well as a significant number of Baez' own compositions. Like its immediate predecessors, the album was recorded in Nashville, and had a decidedly country feel. The original vinyl version was released as a double album, which also included a bonus 7" 33​1⁄3 rpm record which included the songs "Maria Dolores" and Woody Guthrie's "Deportee", which she dedicated to the farmers of the world, adding, "May they soon cease to be victims. " On CD pressings, these two tracks are on a separate disc, as the Red Book standards prohibit fitting them on a single, 80-minute disc. It would be Baez' final studio album for Vanguard, her label of the previous eleven years, as she was to sign with A&M in early 1972. more »