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Joni Mitchell Leads With Her Music By Jon Friedman
"This generation's Joni Mitchell is Joni Mitchell." — Cameron Crowe, who is hoping to make a biopic about the singer.
Welcome to Joni Mitchell Mania. The Bard of Canada is back.
After years of staying out of the public eye, Joni seems to be everywhere. To the delight of her fans, she made a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022. A live album of her set is said to be in the works. On March 31, 2023, she was featured on PBS celebrating her honor as a recipient of The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and in June, she headlined the "Joni Jam" at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State, which also featured Grammy winner Brandi Carlile, 42. Joni Mitchell will turn 79 in November.
As Joni might sum up the past decade of her life: You don't know what you've got till it's gone. In March 2015, she suffered a brain aneurysm rupture. She had to have extensive physical therapy as she learned to walk and talk again. She made only a handful of public appearances as she recuperated. Call Joni's lyrics lessons in poetry or songwriting or prose. All of those descriptions fit. The point is that women of all ages have found common ground in Joni's music for more than 50 years: the pain and betrayal that accompanies a bitter breakup ("Coyote"), the world-weary understanding, always, that life goes on ("The Circle Game"), the appreciation of self-reliance ("Free Man in Paris"). And so much more.
"There's nothing scarier than playing songs you wrote in front of Joni Mitchell," Carlile said on stage.
"There's nothing scarier than playing songs you wrote in front of Joni Mitchell," Carlile said on stage. Joni Mitchell is the rarest kind of celebrity: an icon who actually stands for something. She has an uncanny way of making her fans, particularly women, relate to her songs. Joni appeals to people on an emotional level. She has integrity. The work is an end in itself, not the accompanying adulation or fame or money. You get the feeling that if her career had not taken off, she'd still be "singing real good, for free," as one of her signature songs goes.
Read more of this story on Next Avenue.org
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OCTOBER 2023
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