b. Joan Chandos Baez, 9 January 1941, Staten Island, New York, USA. The often-used cliché - the queen of folk to Bob Dylan's king - her sweeping soprano is one of the most distinctive voices in popular music. An impressive appearance at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival followed the singer's early performances throughout the Boston/New England club scene and established Baez as a vibrant interpreter of traditional material. Her first four albums featured ballads drawn from American and British sources, but as the civil rights campaign intensified, so the artist became increasingl...