With her new album, in many ways Joan Baez has come full circle.

When the “folk scene” was blossoming in the mid-fifties, Baez was there playing the local coffeehouses of Boston. Her political activism was also beginning.

She left the Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1958 to pursue both interests. A year later, her career took off when she was invited to play the Newport Folk Festival.

Like many folk players, Baez uses her music as a vehicle to present her political views. What made folk music popular in the sixties is now making folk-oriented rock popular today.

There is a renewed social awareness happening which seems to come abound every twenty years. The rise in memberships of Greenpeace and Amnesty International attest to it. The popularity of Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon also attest to it. These artists have associated themselves and their music with political causes.

The trouble with Baez’s newest effort is her attempt to keep pace with the latest recording technologies. The earthy sound associated with folk music is hurt by the heavy use of electronics on the album.

It seems in an attempt to increase popularity, Baez is emulating current music trends.