Honest Lullaby is a studio album by the American musician Joan Baez, released in 1979.[4] It was her final album on CBS Records' Portrait imprint; it also stood as her last studio album issued in the U.S. until the release of her 1987 album, Recently.

Honest Lullaby
Studio album by
ReleasedJuly 1979
Recorded1979
GenreFolk
LabelPortrait
ProducerBarry Beckett
Joan Baez chronology
The Joan Baez Country Music Album
(1979)
Honest Lullaby
(1979)
Live Europe '83
(1984)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
MusicHound Folk: The Essential Album Guide[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]

The autobiographical title song was written for her son, Gabriel Harris.[5] It was performed on The Muppet Show in 1980. In addition to her own compositions, the album contained work by Janis Ian and Jackson Browne. "Let Your Love Flow" was originally a 1976 hit for the Bellamy Brothers. In her 1987 memoir, And a Voice to Sing With, Baez speculated that she was likely dropped from CBS due to a political disagreement she'd had with the label's then-president.

Baez dedicated the album to the memory of journalist John L. Wasserman. (Wasserman, who had died the previous February, had written the liner notes to Baez's 1977 compilation, The Best of Joan C. Baez).

The cover photos were taken by photographer Yousuf Karsh.

Track listing edit

  1. "Let Your Love Flow" (Larry E. Williams)
  2. "No Woman No Cry" (Vincent Ford)
  3. "Light a Light" (Janis Ian)
  4. "Song at the End of the Movie" (Pierce Pettis)
  5. "Before the Deluge" (Jackson Browne)
  6. "Honest Lullaby" (Joan Baez)
  7. "Michael" (Joan Baez)
  8. "For Sasha" (Joan Baez)
  9. "For All We Know" (Sam M. Lewis, J. Fred Coots)
  10. "Free at Last" (Baez, George Jackson)

Personnel edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Honest Lullaby Review by William Ruhlmann". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  2. ^ MusicHound Folk: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1998. p. 34.
  3. ^ The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 31.
  4. ^ Herman, Robin (6 July 1979). "Two 60's Songbirds in the Park". The New York Times. p. C1.
  5. ^ Hartline, Sandra (2 July 1991). "Baez, Hope bring back the magic but fail to attract capacity crowds". The Vancouver Sun. p. C3.
  • Baez, Joan. 1987. And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. Century Hutchinson, London. ISBN 0-7126-1827-9