Gulf Winds is the seventeenth studio album (and nineteenth overall) by Joan Baez, released in 1976. It was her final album of new material for A&M. Baez stated in her autobiography, And a Voice to Sing With, that most of the songs were written while on tour with the Rolling Thunder Revue with Bob Dylan.Baez, Joan. 1987. And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. Century Hutchinson, London. "O Brother!" was a clever reply to Dylan's song "Oh Sister". On the title song, a ten-minute long autobiographical recollection of her childhood, Baez accompanies herself only with her own acoustic guitar (the rest of the album features standard mid-1970s pop/rock backup), creating a sound reminiscent of her earliest pure folk recordings.
Gulf Winds is the only Baez album without any covers; each song was written by Baez herself.
From the album's liner notes:
"Sometimes, I wake up at night and write a song. Sometimes a tune comes to my head when I'm walking in the hills, and I have to make up words for it. Sometimes I sit in a bar in San Francisco and scribble into a notepad what I call my 'streams of unconsciousness.' When I have enough scribbles in the pad, and enough tunes in my head, I go into the studio and make an album. That's how I made this one." - Joan Baez
Track listing All tracks composed by Joan Baez
Side one "Sweeter for Me" – 4:25 "Seabirds" – 4:32 "Caruso" – 3:42 "Still Waters at Night" – 3:01 "Kingdom of Childhood" – 7:51
Side two "O Brother!" – 3:19 "Time Is Passing Us By" – 3:43 "Stephanie's Room" – 4:05 "Gulf Winds" – 10:29
Personnel Joan Baez – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, synthesizer Donald Dunn – bass guitar Jim Gordon – drums Ray Kelley – cello Jesse Ehrlich – cello Larry Knechtel – acoustic and electric piano, organ Dean Parks – acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, string arrangements, conductor Sid Sharp – violin Malcolm Cecil – synthesizer effects, synthesizer programming Technical Tommy Vicari – mix engineer Bernard Gelb – executive producer Roland Young – art direction Chuck Beeson – design Johanna Van Zantwyk – photography "Special thanks to Carlos Bernal"
Chart positions YearChartPosition1976The Billboard 20062
References