A number of companies tried to sign her after her performance at the music festival, including Columbia, but she chose to go instead with the small independent label, Vanguard.

[7]Vanguard issued Joan Baez in Germany, with a different cover but the same liner notes (VSD 8001).

In 2001, Vanguard reissued Joan Baez with new liner notes and three previously unreleased songs.

In his AllMusic review, music critic Bruce Eder commented that the purity of the sound was notable at the time.

He wrote of the album "Baez gives a fine account of the most reserved and least confrontational aspects of the folk revival, presenting a brace of traditional songs (most notably "East Virginia" and "Mary Hamilton") with an urgency and sincerity that makes the listener feel as though they were being sung for the first time".

[10] In 2015, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.