Joni Mitchell: Classic or Dud

it only grows

Truly stunning

“Both Sides Now” just made me bawl like a baby. Such a beautiful performance.

It made me think to myself, you know, one day she'll be gone and I'll probably never get over it.

Annoyingly "twee" hippy songstress with a piercing warble that could make dogs' heads explode.

This could be the single worst take I've read in my (admittedly, relatively short) time here.

Incredible. So happy to see and hear her again.

she sounds fantastic

idk if she'll ever be able to perform a full concert again, let alone go on tour, but i'm incredibly glad that this happened

xxp olde ILM is full of takes like that, it's quite the contrarian time capsule

Damn, i cried. Welcome back.

Beautiful. My cousins were there and said everyone was crying when they did Circle Game.

My only misgiving is that she's gone on for twenty five years or so about how she wants to be finished with music, that only painting satisfies her now. So is someone pushing her to get back on the stage? Or is it that she was only fed up with the business of music?

wynona "im not going to make it..." otm

how dare someone change their mind over time

xp

I just hope it doesn't become a Bruce Willis situation, that's all.

Did I miss something - is there indication that this is more than a one-off?

it's her laughing at the end for me

These videos made have me so emotional. I never thought we'd see her performing on stage again after her aneurysm, given the fact that she almost died and lost the ability to walk and speak for a while.

(Apparently she had to re-learn playing guitar using YouTube tutorials.)

Amazing to hear her sing her classics with the other musicians - but she also sounds so good solo in "Summertime":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwN0dtTYcvs

I'm not crying, you're crying.

I read all the crying comments and scoffed, then watched it and cried - should've known better with Joni.

yeah likewise
What a legend, and what a great way to ease into a comeback. She's made any point she needed to make, but if she enjoyed it as much as it seemed, more please.

Dud

j/k

Does anyone know who the white-haired woman is sitting to Joni’s right?

The appearance altogether is holy shit, but holy shit, that first minute of "Summertime" is good - it's not just good for someone who nearly lost her ability to sing, it's just GOOD. I wish they laid off of some of the cheerleading while the number's playing because it's a little distracting and it's not like she needs it.

"Both Sides Now" is moving as hell. Similar deal though, I kind of wish they just let her sing without trying to harmonize. It's really beautiful to hear her phrasing and it kind of lacquers over it to sing along with the choruses as if it's a pop duet - this is really jazz.

Better footage / sound of BSN here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiluPSmAF8

That's Emmy Lou

good lord!

the woman in the white shirt? that's not Emmylou, is it?

there's a really good look at her at 2:53 of that video just posted.

Idk for sure sorry I thought it really looked like her! But I guess if she was there it would be all over the press.

Oh ok that's def not Emmy Lou

Oh ok that's def not Emmy Lou

My only misgiving is that she's gone on for twenty five years or so about how she wants to be finished with music, that only painting satisfies her now. So is someone pushing her to get back on the stage? Or is it that she was only fed up with the business of music?

― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 25 July 2022 17:36 (yesterday) link

I've seen interview footage of Joni from about 1980 where she was saying that that she goes through periods where she burns out on music and poetry and can only paint, and then she burns out on painting and returns to music and poetry. It could be that the burn-out period was just much longer this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8PfSzwA-Y4

story behind the performance apparently is she's been having private jam sessions with various musicians at her home in recent years & brandi carlile, who's been a regular participant, convinced her to take it to a live audience here, so it sounds like she's had her interest in music back for a few years now at least

Yeah, here's some fuller context for anyone who's wondering why/how this happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53amY2stAbk

oh my God, the "Just Like This Train." so nice to see the playing & the guitar foregrounded, for the music to be centered.

It's something to see Wynonna just show up next to Joni Mitchell, as if it wasn't something you'd expect to see on the unexpected famous people together thread. Maybe it's the Emmylou, Linda, Nicolette connection, but it's something with those Laurel Canyon folks. Like, here's James Taylor and I dunno, Alan Jackson together. Not a care in the world.

There was an account of one of those Joni Jams in LA Times last year that kind of explains how they came to be and how they rekindled her interest in music in recent years:

It is a Saturday night in late May, and Joni Mitchell finds a seat in her living room, a high-ceilinged space with a pool table, an array of guitars, a grand piano and a generous collection of her paintings. Her face is filled with promise and a touch of mischief. Tonight is the latest edition of “Joni’s Jam,” the first since the world opened up a bit.

In 2018, in town for a show, singer-songwriter Eric Andersen had visited Mitchell’s Bel-Air home with his band. The house was quiet then. It was just a few years after the sudden brain aneurysm that stilled Mitchell’s voice and brought her the medical verdict that she’d likely never walk again. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that. After being diagnosed with polio at age 9, she declared she’d walk again. Sixty-one years later, at a similar crossroads, she vowed the same thing. Often asked if she’d sing again though, Mitchell’s response was usually less promising. A smile, a small shake of the head.

“Oh, that’s gone,” she’d say, meaning her voice.

But Andersen played live music in her living room that night, and while Mitchell’s voice was absent, it was the sound of musicians and the camaraderie that this self-professed “rowdy” missed. Not long after that, at a dinner with a friend, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, Mitchell suggested she help round up some musicians for a more regular jam session. “Joni’s Jam” would occur from time to time, always with a small group of musician friends like Chaka Khan or Herbie Hancock and maybe some of the “young’uns” who’d wanted to blend in and meet her, like Harry Styles. Joni’s only motto: “Park your pistols at the door.” That meant no phones or video and only one photo — a group shot at the end of the night.

“All right, here we go,” announces Carlile, here for tonight’s jam. She’s flanked by her guitar-and-bass accompanists Tim and Phil Hanseroth. Also present: Elton John, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig from Lucius, singer-songwriter Charlie Puth, musician-bandleader Rick Whitfield and pianist Ben Lusher, along with spouses and Laessig’s newborn baby, Oscar. Carlile kicks off the evening with her version of “Carey,” the signature song from Mitchell’s most beloved album, “Blue.”

Six feet away is the artist-composer herself. As Carlile jauntily offers the song with true fan fervor, a warm and familiar voice joins in when the chorus arrives.

“Oh, you’re a mean old daddy,” sings Joni Mitchell, “but I like you … fine.”

There are whoops and hollers, and nearby on the sofa with husband David Furnish, John shares a look of joyful surprise with the others. That voice. She’s singing again. Soon after, John joins Puth for a stirring version of his own “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” Lucius sings a new song, and Carlile does the same, along with her show-stopper “The Joke.” Near the end of the evening, John serenades Mitchell with a burnished, world-wise version of “Moon River.” “I just want to say,” he’d announced earlier, “this is such a gift to see you doing so well. And to be here, and to tell you how much we love you. … We just love you.”

A goosebumps evening to be sure, but it’s the rousing version of Mitchell singing “Blue’s” “All I Want” with Carlile that might linger longest. “I am on a lonely road, and I am traveling, traveling, traveling.” She wrote the song long ago, but she doesn’t sound lonely tonight.

A couple of nights later, over a rustic dinner featuring Mitchell’s own “Saskatoon stew,” she is still glowing from the event that filled her living room with song. Or perhaps it is the robust physical therapy and swimming session she’s just come from.

“It was a fun evening,” says Mitchell. “I wasn’t sure I would be able to sing. I have no soprano left, just a low alto,” she explains. “The spirit moved me. I forgave myself for my lack of talent.” She laughs. “I’m still playing little clubs.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-06-20/joni-mitchell-cameron-crowe-50th-anniversary-blue

That's wonderful, thanks!

xpost Wynonna's been into this frequently electric blues-folk-rockish thang for quite a while, for inst with her band The Big Noise and otherwise---here's her 2020 quarantine EP (my comments on the Scene ballot: my fave is "Ramble On Rose"---would like to hear her do an alb of Dead, or at least "Ripple" and "New Speedway Boogie," both of which would fit rat in here: https://wynonna.bandcamp.com/album/recollections

Recollections, the captivating new EP from Wynonna, marks both a literal and a figurative homecoming for the GRAMMY-winning songstress who recorded much of the collection while quarantining on her Tennessee farm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced off the road for the first time in years, she found herself reconnecting with her roots as she sang once again for the sheer joy of it, performing a series of loose and lively covers with her husband, former Highway 101 drummer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Cactus Moser.

The gritty "King Bee," a half-century-old blues tune Wynonna and Moser have been performing live together for years, gets an extra boost of swagger from the couple's palpable chemistry, with Wynonna bouncing swampy, distorted harmonica riffs off of her husband's searing slide guitar. " 'King Bee' reminds me of why I love the blues so much," Wynonna said.

"I've learned a lot being at home these last few months," Wynonna reflects. "When there's no touring, no concerts, no band, no lights, no action, all that's left is you and the song. All that's left is your gift."

'Recollections' EP

1. I Hear You Knocking (Fats Domino)

2. King Bee (Slim Harpo)

3. Feeling Good (Nina Simone)

4. Angel From Montgomery (John Prine)

5. Ramble On Rose (Grateful Dead)

Brandi Carlile talks about the first time she was invited to Joni's house in her book from a year or two back. The gatherings existed well before Carlile was invited to them but she sure seems to have become passionate about them! btw if you're a fan of Brandi Carlile the audio version of her book is quite good.

She did an episode of "Song Exploder" recently where she talked about making her song "You and Me and the Rock." She acknowledges an enormous debt to Joni. The song in particular was inspired by "All I Want."

So I see the song through, and I just took the unmixed version of that song
straight to Joni's house, have a glass of wine, and play her the song. And I told
her everything that I've said today. You know, she nodded, but she didn't offer
any commentary. And she said, “Alright, well, let's hear it then.” And so, we go
into the living room, and I put it on, and she's leaned forward in her chair with
her wine in her hand. And she’s kind of grooving to it a little bit, and I'm
watching, and I'm just thinking like, “Oh my God, what's she going to say? This
thing's going to end, and she's going to look at me, and she's going to say, you
know, “You're too old to do this. You need to carve out your own path,” or
something that would, you know, destabilize me.” And the song ends,
(Music fades)
Brandi: and she looks up at me, and she smiles, and she goes, “Sounds like a hit
(laughter)

https://songexploder.net/brandi-carlile

http://songexploder.net/transcripts/brandi-carlile-transcript.pdf

"You and Me ON the Rock." D'oh.

yeah, that particular song is quite Joni-ish

"You're too old to do this" = lol

Brandi is pretty awesome. Good example of someone whose music is good (not life-changing) to begin with, but it's elevated by everything else about her - her shows, her personality, her activism, stuff like this...

i'm probably underselling her best work there, fwiw ... i can imagine "The Joke" has probably changed some lives.

I just love the image. She plays her song for her hero, is nervous as hell, thinking she's going to be judged harshly by this musical legend, and her verdict is, "Sounds like a hit."

Brandi is pretty awesome. Good example of someone whose music is good (not life-changing) to begin with, but it's elevated by everything else about her - her shows, her personality, her activism, stuff like this...

― alpine static, Tuesday, July 26, 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Agree.

yeah i think anything she was doing onstage w Joni was borne of being supportive, being a fan, loving the music & idk maybe just reassuring Joni like hey we got u

like she’s not a showboater & she wouldn’t ever deliberately upstage anyone so however self-serving it may have looked at first glance is def not what was going on