Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal — A Night To Honor Joan Baez — "Twelve Gates To The City" (4K)

Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal play a cover of the traditional song "Twelve Gates To The City" (a/k/a "Oh What A Beautiful City") live in concert before a sold-out crowd at The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, California on February 8, 2025. Twelve Gates To The City is a traditional gospel song recorded by many over the years, including The Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Reverend Gary Davis, and Pete Seeger. Joan Baez recorded a cover of the song on the 1959 album Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square. A live version recorded in the early 1960s appeared on Baez's album, Very Early Joan (1982).

Joining Raitt and Taj Mahal onstage were Joe Henry (guitar), David Piltch (bass), Gabe Harris (drums), Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar), and Jason Crosby (keyboards / fiddle). This was a special one-night benefit concert called Sweet Relief Presents: A Night To Honor Joan Baez. To donate to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, visit https://www.sweetrelief.org/general-f....

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Official Show Announcement:

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund announces an upcoming benefit concert, celebrating the legacy of legendary folk singer Joan Baez, on February 8, at Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco. Confirmed performers include Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Hozier, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Morello, Joe Henry, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal with surprise guests and additional performers to be announced shortly.

Joan Baez has endured as a musical force of nature for over six decades, with an unwavering commitment to social activism and the arts. Her classic early 1960s folk recordings attracted a generation who carried songs like “House Of the Rising Sun” and “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” into the rock lexicon. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017. Though Baez stopped touring in 2019, she has been the subject of the film, I Am The Noise, and has released a book of drawings, Am I Pretty When I Fly?, and a book of poetry, When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance.

Emmylou Harris shares “So happy to be a part of celebrating my dear friend Joan Baez!" Aric Steinberg, Executive Director at Sweet Relief Musicians Fund adds, “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. It will be a night to remember and 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.”

"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.” Musical Director, Joe Henry, adds and continues, “What a singular honor, then, for all us to gather in honor of her —and to benefit the heroic organization Sweet Relief, that provides financial assistance to musicians in health crisis. Come February 8th at San Francisco's historic Masonic Auditorium—in her name, and in these wicked times— we will raise our voices as Joan has."

The February event is part of an ongoing series of shows presented by Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides services and financial assistance for career musicians and music industry professionals. Grants are earmarked for medical and vital living expenses, including insurance premiums, prescriptions, medical treatment and operative procedures, housing costs, food costs, utilities, and other basic necessities.

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Twelve Gates To The City lyrics:

Oh, what a beautiful city
Oh, what a beautiful city
Oh, what a beautiful city
Twelve gates to the city, hallelujah

And it's oh, what a beautiful
Oh Lord, what a beautiful city
Twelve gates to the city, hallelujah

There's three gates in the East
There's three gates in the West
There's three gates in the North
There's three gates in the South
That makes twelve gates to the city, hallelujah

And it's oh, what a beautiful
Oh Lord, what a beautiful city
Twelve gates to the city, hallelujah
Oh Lord, what a beautiful city
Oh Lord, what a beautiful city
Twelve gates to the city, hallelujah

If you see my dear old mother
Won't you do this favor for me
Won't you please tell my mother
To meet me in Galilee
Well, it's twelve gates to the city, hallelujah

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