Folk icon Joan Baez will be saluted at a star-packed benefit show taking place next year in San Francisco that will raise money for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund charity. Baez herself will perform at the concert, which is scheduled for February 8 at Masonic Auditorium.
The event’s impressive lineup also features Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Hozier, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Tom Morello, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. A number of additional performers will be announced soon, and the concert also will include some surprise guests.
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Joe Henry will serve as musical director of the evening’s house band, which also will feature multi-instrumentalists and Jackson Browne touring members Jason Crosby and Greg Liesz. In addition, bassist David Piltch and percussionist Gabe Harris, Baez’s son, will perform be part of the group.
Tickets and VIP packages for the “Sweet Relief Presents A Night to Honor Joan Baez” concert will go on sale to the general public on Friday, December 20. Fans interested in purchasing tickets may want to check a verified resale platform like StubHub.
Baez posted a note about the concert on her social media pages. It reads in part, “Looking forward to performing with so many wonderful musicians and celebrate 30 Years of @sweetreliefmusiciansfund on Feb. 8th at The Masonic in San Francisco!”
The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund offers health services, financial support, and other assistance to professional musicians and others who work in the music industry. The organization provides grants for medical and living expenses. These include insurance premiums, prescriptions, medical treatment and procedures, housing and food costs, and other basic needs.
Other Comments About the Concert
Emmylou Harris said of the event, “So happy to be a part of celebrating my dear friend Joan Baez!”
The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund’s executive director, Aric Steinberg, added, “We’re beyond thrilled to celebrate 30 years of Sweet Relief while honoring the great Joan Baez and her amazing career. Joan has supported our charity for many years, and it’s a privilege to honor her this year alongside so many incredible artists. … I’m so grateful to Joan and all of the performers who will help ensure that our music community continues to have Sweet Relief as a resource for emergency financial assistance.”
Meanwhile, Henry offered, “Joan Baez is a mountain on our landscape, and has been for the entirety of my lifetime. As much as any artist I know, she has dismantled the wall between public artistry and personal conviction—investing each with the other, to create a body of work that, in the words of Woody Guthrie, ‘comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.’”
More About Joan Baez
Baez, 83, released her self-titled debut solo in 1960. She quickly became one of the most popular and influential artists on the folk scene, mentoring and/or inspiring such other well-known musicians as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell.
Baez also has been a devout lifelong activist for political causes, and took part in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic March on Washington. She was among the many performers at the 1969 Woodstock festival. During the 1970s, Joan scored Top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with her cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and her own song “Diamonds & Rust.”
In 2017, Baez was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She retired from touring in 2019, but has performed at various events since then. One of those was a 2024 benefit for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund that also took place at the Masonic Auditorium. That show saluted Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
Joan also was the subject of an acclaimed 2023 documentary titled I Am a Noise. In 2024, Baez released a biographical poetry collection called When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance.