''One Day at a Time'' is the 11th studio album by

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

, released in January 1970. Recorded in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, the album was a continuation of Baez' experimentation with

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, begun with the previous year's ''

David's Album ''David's Album'' is the tenth studio album by Joan Baez, recorded in Nashville and released in 1969. It peaked at number 36 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums chart. History Baez's then husband, David Harris, a country music fan, was about to be i ...

''. It is significant in that it was the first to include Baez' own compositions, "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "A Song for David", the former song a ballad for her younger sister

Mimi Fariña Margarita Mimi Baez Fariña (April 30, 1945 – July 18, 2001) was an American singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters to a Scottish mother and Mexican-American physicist Albert Baez. She was the younger sister of t ...

, and the latter song being for her then-husband, David Harris, at the time in prison as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

. ''One Day at a Time'' also included work by

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...

, and

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

. The album contains three of the songs Baez had performed at Woodstock four months earlier: "I Live One Day at a Time", "Joe Hill", and "Sweet Sir Galahad". The Vanguard reissue contains two outtakes from the ''One Day at a Time'' sessions: "Sing Me Back Home" and "Mama Tried", both duets with Jeffrey Shurtleff, and both Merle Haggard covers. (The two cuts had first appeared on Baez' 1993 boxed set ''

Rare, Live & Classic ''Rare, Live & Classic'' is a 1993 box set compilation by Joan Baez. Released on Vanguard, where Baez had recorded her most influential work during the first twelve years of her career, the set also included material from her subsequent record la ...

''). (The recording of "Mama Tried" includes an initial aborted take, interrupted when session guitarist

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...

's finger becomes stuck between his guitar strings, followed by laughter by all present at Reed's mishap; the musicians and Baez then regain composure and perform a second take of the song.)

Track listing

#" Sweet Sir Galahad" (

) – 3:43 #" No Expectations" (

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

, Keith Richards) – 3:47 #"

Long Black Veil "Long Black Veil" is a 1959 country ballad, written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell. It is told from the point of view of a man falsely accused of murder and executed. He refuses to provide an alibi, ...

" (

Marijohn Wilkin Marijohn Wilkin ( Melson; July 14, 1920 – October 28, 2006) was an American songwriter, famous in country music for writing a number of hits. Wilkin won numerous awards over the years and was referred to as "The Den Mother of Music Row," a ...

Danny Dill Horace Eldred "Danny" Dill (September 19, 1924 – October 23, 2008) was an American country music singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. Biography Dill, born in Clarksburg, Tennessee, got h ...

) – 3:24 #"Ghetto" ( Homer Banks, Bonnie Bramlett, Bettye Crutcher) – 4:33 #"Carry It On" (

, Gil Turner) – 2:22 #"Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (Traditional) (duet with Jeffrey Shurtleff) – 2:47 #"

Seven Bridges Road "Seven Bridges Road" is a song written by American musician Steve Young, recorded in 1969 for his '' Rock Salt & Nails'' album. It has since been covered by many artists, the best-known versions being a five-part harmony arrangement by English m ...

" ( Steve Young) (duet with Shurtleff) – 3:42 #"Jolie Blonde" (Traditional) – 2:00 #" Joe Hill" ( Alfred Hayes,

Earl Robinson Earl Hawley Robinson (July 2, 1910 – July 20, 1991) was a composer, arranger and folk music singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is remembered for his music, including the cantata "Ballad for Americans" and songs such as " Jo ...

) – 3:25 #"A Song for David" (Baez) – 4:57 #"(I Live) One Day at a Time" (

) (duet with Shurtleff) – 3:31

Reissue bonus tracks

#" Mama Tried" ( Merle Haggard) (duet with Shurtleff) - 3:13 #" Sing Me Back Home" (Merle Haggard) (duet with Shurtleff) - 2:53

Personnel

* Joan Baez – vocals, guitar *

Pete Drake Roddis Franklin "Pete" Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988), was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player. One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson' ...

–

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

Roy Huskey, Jr. Roy Milton Huskey (December 17, 1956 – September 6, 1997) was a prominent United States, American upright bass player in country music from Nashville, Tennessee. Huskey performed alongside musicians such as Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Johnny ...

– bass guitar * Tommy Jackson –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

* Jerry Shook – guitar *

– guitar *

Harold Bradley Harold Ray Bradley (January 2, 1926 – January 31, 2019) was an American guitarist and entrepreneur, who played on many country, rock and pop recordings and produced numerous TV variety shows and movie soundtracks. Having started as a session ...

– guitar * Hargus "Pig" Robbins – piano * Harold Rugg –

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

* Grady Martin – guitar, dobro,

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...

Buddy Spicher Buddy Spicher (born July 28, 1938 in DuBois, Pennsylvania; pronounced “Spiker”) is an American country music fiddle player. He is a member of The Nashville A-Team of session musicians, and is Grammy-nominated. He was nominated as Instrumental ...

– fiddle * Norbert Putnam – bass guitar *

Kenny Buttrey Aaron Kenneth Buttrey (April 1, 1945 – September 12, 2004) was an American drummer and arranger. According to Country Music Television, CMT, he was "one of the most influential session musicians in Nashville history". Buttrey was born in Nashvi ...

– drums * David Briggs – piano,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

Richard Festinger Richard Festinger (born 1 March 1948) is an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist and educator. Biography Festinger was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from San Francisco State Un ...

– guitar * Charlie McCoy – harmonica,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

, organ *

Henry Strzelecki Henry Pershing Strzelecki (August 8, 1939 – December 30, 2014) was a Nashville studio musician who performed with Roy Orbison, Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard, and man ...

– bass guitar * Pete Wade – guitar ;Technical * Jim Marshall – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1970 albums Joan Baez albums Albums produced by Maynard Solomon Vanguard Records albums Country albums by American artists