Joan Baez announces final tour, includes two NYC dates

Joan Baez is the latest legendary artist to announce her final “formal” tour, which will include two shows at the Beacon Theatre in September.

“It’s so difficult to sing,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer recently told Rolling Stone. “Nobody can really imagine the effort it takes to keep up with these vocal cords. They don’t do what I want them to do anymore. When I stay in the low range, they do, pretty much. And I like the sound. But I can’t do . . . [expletive] in the upper range anymore. I can kind of pop up there and get back down but the notes that I would sing before, nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Baez’s tour supports her upcoming album “Whistle Down the Wind,” where the 77-year-old interprets songs from everyone from Tom Waits and Mary Chapin Carpenter to Anohni. It starts Sept. 11 in Ithaca and runs through Nov. 17 in Oakland, with shows at the Beacon on Sept. 21 and 22.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster and include a copy of the new album, which will be released Friday.