Joan Baez Issue #37

Day After Tomorrow (Bobolink/Razor & Tie)

By John S.W. MacDonald
Published: September 1st, 2008 | 12:41am

Day After Tomorrow begins with a startling statement of faith: “I believe in miracles / Something sacred burning in every bush and tree,” Joan Baez sings on Steve Earle’s “God Is God.” It ends nine tracks later with Baez — accompanied only by handclaps — singing, “I met my mother walking down the Jericho Road / Tears in her eyes and her head hung low,” on another Earle tune, “Jericho Road.”

Between these polar expressions of conviction and despair lies the emotional core of Baez’s 24th album: a quiet, cautious optimism. While it’s been easy to roll our eyes at Baez over the years — the fussy do-gooder with the tremulous soprano that could topple tyrants — Day never berates or beats its chest. The stories in these songs — a 21-year-old who misses her Illinois home (Tom Waits’ “Day After Tomorrow”), a family losing a loved-one (Thea Gilmore’s “The Lower Road”) — are about local dramas, not global indignation.

Similarly, Earle’s production lends the album a warm, fireside manner. Surrounding Baez are acoustic guitars, mandolins, the occasional droning sitar — all of it unaffected and imminently listenable.

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