Hello in there (Joan Baez) (LP 2799 - 2800)

Joan Baez  Diamonds and Rust (CD, A&M Records, 1975) ****  

Dr Tree Dr Tree (Vinyl, EMI Records, 1976 this copy was reissued in 2024) ****  

Genre: Folk rock; jazz fusion/ NZ music

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Eugeno D (Dr Tree)

Gear costume: Hello In There (Joan)

Active compensatory factors: Two classic albums which I have recently purchased thanks to a gift voucher from my previous employer. The Dr Tree album cost $103, so the voucher came in very handy!

As readers of my other blogs know, I am a Joan Baez fan, currently reading her 1987 autobiography and still catching up with her vast back catalogue. I am cherry picking though, as I'm not a completist.

Diamonds and Rust came out amidst the Rolling Thunder Revue tour with Dylan and it's a beauty. Not a five-star classic, but near as dammit.

Her own songs hold their own, but the best songs are covers of Dylan (Simple Twist of Fate), Jackson Browne (Fountain of Sorrow), John Prine (Hello In There) and Dicky Betts (Blue Sky).

Dr Tree was a legendary NZ fusion band put together by drummer Frank Gibson Jnr. No disrespect meant to the other musicians, but it stars him, Kim Patterson (trumpet), Murray McNabb (electric piano), and Martin Winch (guitar).

I've heard stories about the album over the years but never been able to find a copy. Luckily, it's been reissued this year in double record format (the original plus a record of outtakes) and made in the EU - hence the expensive price tag.

It's definitely worth it though as this album is relentlessly brilliant. Although, there is maybe a bit too much trumpet; Jimmy Sloggett adds some brilliant tenor sax to an outtake and I'd have loved to hear more from him, but that would be tampering with history. Still, it's great to hear now on the expanded edition.

Where do they all belong? Definitely not the last Joan Baez album I'll be buying.