When you’re a sister of a legend, the mantle can lie heavy.

Joan Baez probably always knew that, but she learned more after the death last July of her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Farini.

”I learned most of what I learned from Mimi after she died,” says Baez as she reflects on the loss.

That’s when you start doing a review, she says. She began to meditate quite a bit to deal with the sorrow.

“Everytime I see myself getting frantic and distracted, I’m pretty clear what it’s about,” she says. “So I just sit in quiet meditation, paying-attention-meditation, a loving kind of meditation.”

The realizations come like huge waves, she says.

Such as:

“How difficult it was for Mimi being my sister, how much she loved me and I loved her, how difficult it got in the later part of our life to be able to show that,” Baez says. “I learned Mimi was an extraordinary person and I learned I had not learned that. When I saw people respond to her, that’s what it took.”

Baez says she would like the world to know that her sister fought against enormous internal odds to do what she did. “And she made it look like a breeze,” she says.

“I don’t think she realized the extent of pleasure and strength and all the things she brought to other people. I think toward the end she was beginning to. We just wouldn’t let up on her.” Baez chuckles.

She says she is still learning about Mimi’s impact in letters she continues to receive.

And she likely will learn still more as she mounts a concert tour for the first time since Farina’s death.

“I called my manager from the airport and he said, ‘Are you excited?’ I paused. I said ‘I’m interested, but it’s not like ‘Whoop-de-do.’ Once I get on tour it turns into ‘Whoop de do’ more often than not. It’s fun. By the end of a tour I’m asking myself, ‘Why am I stopping?’ “

Baez explains that it is a confusing period for her now, though, partly because of Farina’s death and partly because of the state of the world. She canceled a tour last fall to be at her sister’s side.

“I know I have to be a little more verbal than I have in the last 10 years about the state of affairs in the world, but I can’t until I have digested Mimi’s death more.”

She is giving some thought to perhaps performing some of her sister’s songs.

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer are along as featured members of her band. Richard Shindell will guest, performing material from his albums. Shindell has been hailed as “a master builder of songs” (Boston Globe) and for his ability to “dwell on big, often difficult moments in the lives of ordinary people.” (New York Times).

Baez laughs when she talks about what her public perception may be.

“Because this country is so huge and has such a short memory, probably many people still think, ‘Oh, you cut your hair.’ On the other hand, since I’ve put the last 12 years working at really updating myself musically, and the desire to be recognized by the industry as a viable entity now, not just a legend, it is a battle between the legend image and the fresh image.”

For many people, she says, her image is more political than musical. “Partly what I do now is put the musical into perspective. The quality it has has been because of the gift (of her voice) and the years I’ve spent doing it. I’d like people to listen. When they do listen to recent stuff they like it.”

Baez went to Minneapolis in early January to begin work on a new studio album. “It was one degree out. Doesn’t everybody go to Minneapolis in January?”

She laughs.

She recorded material by Ryan Adams, Steve Earle and four of Greg Brown’s songs.

Now she’s singing for the pleasure of it, she says. “It’s nicer this way. Some of my Buddhist friends said ‘If you get to the point you know you still have to do it, but are discouraged, think of it as service.’ “

Vanguard Records continues the release of “The Joan Baez Original Master Series,” a series of chronological reissues that celebrates Baez’s 14-album Vanguard catalog. Last summer, the label released the first three of these titles: “Joan Baez,” originally released in 1960; “Joan Baez Vol. 2 (1961),” and “Noel” (1996).

This March, Vanguard is to issue “Joan Baez In Concert” and “In Concert Part 2.” Featuring re-mastering from the original analog tapes, each CD includes previously unreleased material from the original recording sessions, new liner notes and deluxe packaging.

Asked what her priorities are these days in social and political issues, she says, “I had to forcibly change them when I decided to do deep therapy and do the career at the same time. I had to stop political action on the front burner, except going to Sarajevo in the middle of the war. I wanted to find something simple and intelligent I could do.”

As for motivation for choosing career projects, she says, “I have no ambition in a good sense. I know in spite of my very political, very anti-commercial approach for all of those years, I still had ambition in a sense to be recognized. I really think that has dissipated.”

That gives her, she says, tremendous freedom in what she chooses to do next.

Baez is exploring acting and wants to work with a coach on character development. And there are interests that she has considered for years in which she would like to dabble.

For example: “I want to make pottery. I could occupy myself doing that the rest of my life.”

Fans, who have been touched by her music through the years, though, aren’t yet prepared to search out Joan Baez, Mimi Farina’s big sister, at craft fairs.