One couldn't be a host of this show unless one had a certain amount of commercial success. Earlier in 1975, Baez released "Diamonds and Rust," a song she wrote herself, as a single. It was a Top Forty hit in the U.S., and helped the album it came from, also called "Diamonds and Rust," go Gold. (That means sales of half a million in the U.S.)
Hoyt Axton didn't have big success as a performer (although he did have a couple of hits on the country charts in the 1970s). However, he had a lot more success as a songwriter. In fact, I've created a "Covered" album for him, which you can find here:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/covered-hoyt-axton-1963-1977.html
Baez and Axton sang a duet on the song "Lion in the Winter." It was a song written by Axton. He did a duet version with Linda Ronstadt that came out in 1975 and was a minor country hit. Baez essentially sang Ronstadt's part. Axton also sang two songs on his own.
Baez had another musical collaboration in this episode. Hampton Hawes was a well known jazz pianist since the late 1940s. On Baez's "Diamonds and Rust" album, she wrote a jazzy song called "Children and All that Jazz," which featured a prominent piano part by Hawes. So the two of them performed it on this show, with Baez singing and Hawes playing the piano. Hawes died not long after that, in 1977. Hawes performed two other songs on his own in this episode, but I chose not to include them.
In case you're curious, the only other performer in this episode was Kool and the Gang. They played three songs.
Oftentimes, when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I bring in other songs from other episodes. But in this case, everything here is from this one episode. Baez would appear some more on the show in 1976 and 1977. She wasn't a host again, but she performed on enough songs that I'll probably be able to put together another album for her when those episodes are released on YouTube.
This album is 40 minutes long.
The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent.
01 talk (Wolfman Jack)
02 Fountain of Sorrow (Joan Baez)
03 talk (Joan Baez)
04 Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)
05 talk (Joan Baez)
06 Jesse (Joan Baez)
07 talk (Joan Baez)
08 Children and All that Jazz (Joan Baez & Hampton Hawes)
09 talk (Joan Baez)
10 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Hoyt Axton)
11 When the Morning Comes (Hoyt Axton)
12 talk (Joan Baez)
13 Lion in the Winter (Joan Baez & Hoyt Axton)
14 talk (Joan Baez)
15 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Joan Baez)
16 talk (Joan Baez)
17 Winds of the Old Days (Joan Baez)
18 talk (Joan Baez)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ju6hshd4
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/pGv3nDcqZ5tmgjb/file
The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. It shows Baez with Axton.
