Angel in Cotton

In about 1962 I saw Joan Baez at the Seattle Civic, modestly

well-attended by well-laundered overalls and plaid flannel shirts. Her

name was the draw and her shirt was flannel.

She was sponsoring this gnomish little frizzy-haired guy that nobody’d

ever heard of. He did “Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right)” and “It

Ain’t Me, Babe”. To her, we thought. To her! On stage. Right there in

front of us.

Six years later — hitchhiking in Ohio — a young woods scruff driving a

lop-sided 1952 Ford with Oregon plates opined, “After God made Baez,

He broke the mold.” Who would argue?