For over fifty years, guitar and folk legend Joan Baez has been writing and performing music as a means of drawing social consciousness to both the ills and joys of the human condition.  As a young girl, Baez was exposed to the essence of the civil rights movement by her father, a physicist who refused to work on the Manhattan Project, extensive travel to Iraq, Switzerland, France, Italy, and England, and the preachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who she marched with on numerous occasions.

After a Pete Seeger concert, Baez picked up a guitar and began writing.  In 1959, at the age of nineteen, she was invited to perform at the Newport Folk Festival, where she was bestowed the moniker “barefoot Madonna.”  Baez was quickly signed to Vanguard Records and became a staple of both the folk music community and the civil rights movement, releasing a new album almost every year for over a decade.  Her clear, ringing vocals and powerful, soul-searching lyrics became signatories of the era, as she became involved with Dr. King’s work, stood in the fields with Cesar Chavez, and was a regular presence at protests all over the world.  She has never relented in her efforts to support civil rights and non-violence and has been involved with Live Aid, Amnesty International, Refugees International, and Operation Ceasefire. 

Baez’s catalog of work includes numerous hits, among which she performed “Sweet Sir Galahad”  and “Diamonds and Rust” during her Stern Grove performance.  Baez is also known for her covers of and collaborations with folk legends such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, whom she impersonated perfectly on July 12, leaving the crowd roaring. 

In 2007, Baez was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her extensive collection of influential pieces and contributions to over five decades of activism. Day After Tomorrow, a project with Steve Earle, was released in 2008. The album was Grammy nominated and commercially her most successful album since 1979. After fifty years, Baez’s emotionally moving performance at the Grove proved that her inspirational lyrics and musical talent are more relevant then ever.