Honest Lullaby is Joan Baez‘s 22nd album (not counting compilations) but she sounds neither tired nor bored. Thanks partly to recent voice lessons, in fact, she sounds better than ever.
Featuring several pensive originals as well as tunes like Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge,” the program also deserves plaudits. Almost without exception, it is well arranged and produced and well-suited to Baez. Granted, her technically perfect work still sometimes seems more controlled than emotional, and I am disappointed by the dearth of overtly political material on this and other recent Baez albums. But fans should nevertheless find much to like on Honest Lullaby.