Joan Baez – When You See My Mother Ask Her To Dance [Translucent Red Vinyl]

Joan Baez has sung for presidents, marched for justice, and filled concert halls with her voice. But here, for the first time, she sets aside the guitar and lets her words do the singing. When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance is Baez’s debut book of poetry – now transformed into a limited-edition spoken-word album.

With her unmistakable warmth, wit, and wry honesty, Baez narrates poems about the icons she knew (Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Jimi Hendrix), the family she cherished (including her beloved sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Farina), and the childhood memories that shaped her art. It’s part diary, part time capsule, and part mischievous wink from one of music’s great storytellers. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry.

Produced by Alan Abrahams, the special hand-signed and numbered edition of 1,000 will feature an original insert drawing by Baez herself and is pressed at Quality Record Pressings on translucent red vinyl. Lacquers for this pressing were cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab.

Published last year on Godine, the intimate, autobiographical poetry collection was released to widespread praise – Vanity Fair calls it, “The result of an American icon revisiting her archives and taking back her history,” while Gabriel Byrne (author of Walking with Ghosts) asserts, “In these courageous and soul-searching poems, Joan Baez reveals the joy and sorrow of a life lived fully. Her deceptively simple and elegant verses resonate with profound insight into what it means to be alive, looking Janus-like from past to present. Beautiful” and Bernie Taupin (author of Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me) declares, “Joan’s ideas and musings ricochet from the profound and humanly factual to the observant and slyly humorous. Her words can be both poignantly executed and captivating in a colorful closeness that pin-points the chinks in our armor that mirror all facets of the world we inhabit. A National treasure she is indeed.”

While Baez has been writing poetry for decades, she’s never shared it publicly. Poems about her life, her family, about her passions for nature and art, have piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper. Now, for the first time ever, her life is shared in verse, revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look into the reminiscences and musings of a great artist.

For fans of Joan Baez, poetry, or the sheer magic of words spoken by the voice that carried a generation, this record is nothing short of essential.

Spoken-word album
Numbered edition limited to 1,000 copies!
Includes a hand-signed original insert drawing by Baez herself
Lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab
150-gram translucent red vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Tracklist:
Side A
1. Poetry And Me: An Author’s Note
2. Goodbye To The Black And White Ball
3. Baa Baa
4. Lily
5. My Beautiful Young Mom
6. Maybe
7. Gabe At Three
8. Bucket Of Snow
9. Logic
10. Little Fellow
11. Colleen
12. Laughter And Cognac
13. Writing
14. Star: A Reverie
15. Heron And Blackberries
16. Birdsong
17. Thelma
18. Phobia
19. Dog Death Heat

Side B
1. Jimi
2. Judy
3. Portrait
4. Jasmine
5. Big Sur
6. Queen Of The Mountain
7. Just Because
8. Together In The LIght And The Darkness
9. Into The Ether
10. When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance
11. Waves