Joan Baez appears with Tennessee Rep Justin Jones, premieres her new 'I Am A Noise' doc

Joan Baez's life was already a rare, dynamic one wherein the power of her songs, voice and intentions have been tested and strengthened by the throes of humanity.

Her new documentary, "I Am A Noise," could just be a retelling of a past that finds her a peerless multidisciplinary creator whose path intersects with Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King Jr.'s most profound apexes of their brilliance.

Or, as it was on Saturday afternoon at Nashville's Belcourt Theater, it could spur a moment of empowered gathering for a new generation of influential civil rights activists like Tennessee State Representative of "Tennessee Three" renown, Justin Jones.

The film's most significant value is exploring how Baez -- a frail human as we all ultimately are -- has both failed and succeeded at navigating the balance between her public, private and secret lives.

Publicly, Baez is renowned for covering The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and being a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Americana Music Honors & Awards Spirit of Americana/Free Speech award winner.

However, she also achieved a seemingly perpetual vitality while, for decades, being plagued by unexplainable sadness. This simultaneously occurred as she, over years and therapy, realized that honesty with herself could reveal a self-gratifying authenticity.

The revelation of her most authentic self has, for Baez, revealed a life far more fulfilling than one that's traveled the world multiple times over in a six-decade musical career (she retired in 2018) while simultaneously providing the architecture and soundtrack for pacifism and social change.

For her entire life, she's struggled with various issues: aging, grief, racism against her Scotch-Mexican heritage and memories -- traumatic, familial and abusive ones both forgotten and recalled -- and their resulting mental illness.

Nimbly, often barefoot and dancing, Baez impressively navigated incredible peaks and valleys of her stunningly varied existence.

Whether she was a Boston folkie or Parisian fashionista, a change agent in Cambodia, or Marching on Washington, she was also a daughter, mother, wife, confidant and more. It's a human life, yes, but also one that yields the following superhuman notions to be gleaned from a press release about the new documentary:

Joan Baez was a phenomenon -- an otherworldly soprano and ethereal beauty. Men fell in love with her and women wanted to be like her.

"Her political passion and prodigious talent made her a legend. Long before 'celebrity activism' was cool, Joan used her influence and commitment to nonviolence to relieve suffering and fight injustice. For Baez, the personal is always political."

Early in her life, she proclaimed herself far more of a "noise" than a "saint." However, self-aware of the beauty of her features and the timbre of her voice, she leaned into portraying herself as a "Virgin Mary" type persona.

For three decades, that persona defined her life until, by 1973, the throes of her divorce from activist David Harris and sudden thrust towards ill-fitting rock stardom threw her into depression and quaalude abuse until the onset of the 1980s.

Baez's conversations with Justin Jones bookend astounding eras in Nashville and Tennessee's recent sociopolitical history.

In April 2023, Baez was interviewed by Emmylou Harris at contemporary arts and performance venue OZ Arts Nashville to discuss Baez's new book, "Am I Pretty When I Fly? An Album of Upside-Down Drawings."

At the event, she said she wanted to be more involved with issues surrounding the Tennessee House of Representatives' April 6 expulsion of Democratic Reps. Justin Pearson, of Memphis, and Justin Jones, of Nashville, for leading gun reform protests from the House after the mass shooting at The Covenant School.

"The two Justins are so young, and that white lady [fellow Tennessee state representative Gloria Johnson] is so cool," Baez said while conversing with Harris.

Less than 12 hours later, Baez and Jones serendipitously were on the same flight to New York City, leaving Nashville International Airport.

"When you get off the plane with the legendary Joan Baez, you know it's a movement of the spirit. She stands with us in our struggle in Tennessee and said she's hopeful to see young voices leading," stated Jones on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Gloria Johnson, also on board the flight, shared a video of Jones and Baez singing the protest hymn "We Shall Overcome" in what he called a "serendipitous" activity.

In a conversation with Baez (as well as two of the film's three directors, Maeve O'Boyle and Miri Navasky) on Saturday, Jones referred to the two meeting again as a "sacred gathering and [positive] omen for the history of [Nashville]."

Baez lamented most significantly that her "addiction to activism" and "still, as always, trying to change the world" led her not to be as present as she wanted in the early life of her son, David (now age 52). As well as solving her issues, she credited family counseling and therapy as necessary in healing divisions she had between her and her son, who toured with her for her final 2018 tour.

She was deeply moved by Jones' commitment to continuing "multigenerational representative democracy" in America, adding that "in social change, nothing really changes unless someone is willing to take a large risk."

"Finding passion in your heart that relates to what's going on in the world [should lead you to] making good trouble," added Baez.

At that moment, Jones opened up his sportcoat to reveal a shirt with a photo of civil rights activist and United States representative John Lewis -- for whom "making good trouble" as a legendary Nashville and national civil rights advocate is his forever legacy.

To close the event, Baez, upon prompting from Jones, sang a take on "Wade in the Water" as "Wade in the plaza, the cops gonna trouble the plaza," referring to downtown Nashville's public plaza connecting Music City's Capitol, War Memorial and State Museum, where gun reform protests have occurred.

It felt both timely and timeless.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Joan Baez appears with Tennessee Rep Justin Jones, premieres her new 'I Am A Noise' doc