At 67, Joan Baez has just released an autumn album for the autumn of her years, but filled with the same beautifully sung themes that have defined her career.

Produced by Steve Earle, Baez delivers moving and haunting covers of some of her favorite vocal artists, including Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin.

You can watch Baez sing the title song of the album (written by Tom Waits) here.

It's hard to believe, but Baez is celebrating her 50th year of being one of the giant folksingers in America, if not the most accomplished female singer in this genre.

Although her three-octave vocal range has been somewhat limited by age, the soulful, emotional rendering of the songs that she sings is just as effective.

Baez came of age when music and social justice were combined into activism and hope. She hasn't lost her sense of deep respect for the roots of folk music or for a longing for a more just society. We had the chance to hear sing a few songs at an advocacy benefit in San Francisco a couple of years back, and Baez can still touch a part of your soul that you had long ago forgotten about.

From an online reviewer:

I put this on my iPod as soon as I was able to lay hands on a review copy and have been listening to it almost every day for weeks, without ever being inclined to skip a single track. Here's the review I wrote for The Australian newspaper in Sydney:

IT has been quite a while since the ethereal soprano that thrilled Joan Baez's early audiences made way for an earthier alto, and her voice has mellowed further over the decades. It remains a captivating instrument, but on studio recordings during the past couple of decades it has invariably been mixed too low and, as a result, overwhelmed by the orchestration.

Day After Tomorrow demonstrates the folly of that technique: here the vocals are accorded the primacy they deserve and complemented by exquisitely balanced acoustic accompaniment. Add to that the most sublime bunch of songs to have graced a Baez disc since the mid-1970s, and the result is an outstanding addition to her oeuvre. The achievement can be credited in part to Steve Earle, who not only produced the album but contributed 30 per cent of the songs, including the opening and closing tracks, God is God and Jericho Road.

They are both formidable songs in the vein of Christmas in Washington, but neither of them is quite as poignant as the gently anti-war title track, penned by Tom Waits, and Baez's take on Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett's Scarlet Tide is equally arresting. She has consistently been supportive of younger songwriters (including B. Dylan in the days when he was a complete unknown and she had already graced the cover of Time magazine), and in this instance has included a couple of songs by Eliza Gilkyson (Rose of Sharon and Requiem) that are redolent of the Child ballads that once constituted the core of Baez's repertoire, as well as one by Thea Gilmore (The Lower Road). The Bush administration's outrages have rekindled Baez's activism, and this may be her most socially conscious disc since the `80s, but it takes the path of subtle lamentation rather than strident sloganeering. At barely 37 minutes, the album is arguably too fleeting a pleasure, but its contents unquestionably fall in the category of diamonds, not rust.