Joan Baez Footage From the '50s Found in Freezer

As a part of the 'American Masters' series, PBS produced a documentary on Joan Baez entitled 'How Sweet the Sound' that details the rise of the iconic folk singer through the late '50s and '60s, featuring interviews with Bob Dylan, David Crosby, Steve Earle and Baez herself. During the beginning of her career, we learn that before she'd made her breakout performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, she'd often play around Boston and Cambridge -- in particular at Club 47. At some point, a camera was set up and captured her in a very stark, small setting -- but the footage is clear and quite sharp.

"I can't remember any of that," Baez tells Spinner of the documentary, which debuted Wednesday. "There's a picture, briefly, of a friend Peter Robinson. He was a friend of the family that put on these concerts and he was involved in filmmaking. I know it was him setting it up, but I don't remember cameras being in there or being recorded. In the process of all their archiving, some man came up with some tapes and had a feeling a woman had some more. He found her and it was literally in her freezer."

"There were things I'd never seen before," she adds. "Who would have known that some lady would have Club 47 [footage] locked up in her freezer. That was amazing."

Despite not seeing these cameras set up, it's quite apparent that the cameras were all about getting a snapshot or sound bite during her rise as a political activist. While nowadays it's commonplace for celebrities to attract attention for any little thing they may or may not do, Baez was constantly being followed because of her involvement in the civil rights movements and political trips, such as traveling to Hanoi, Vietnam during war times. "When I was young, I was shy of them," she says. "After a while, I just got used to them."

'How Sweet the Sound' airs again this Sunday on PBS at 4PM ET. Baez joins other 'American Masters,' Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin and Joni Mitchell, in this exclusive series.

If you can't catch the show on PBS, Razor & Tie have released a DVD and Soundtrack of 'How Sweet the Sound' this week.