Just watched her receive the Gershwin award. Remembering the first time I say her was the Spectrum. I was 22 and it was a first date with a man I then spent the next 19 years together until cancer took him. We had decent seats but he knew I loved her music. What a great memory!

I had already seen Joni in '74 at Red Rocks (miserable weather, if I remember correctly) and her appearance with CSNY at Mile High Stadium. This while I was travelling the West with my backpack.
I agree with Jurasicfred - the Spectrum was a horrible place to hear Joni, but she was still amazing. Wish I could see her at the Tower Theater, the acoustics there are tremendous! I lost touch with her music for more than several years after getting married and having children. When I found her again and listened to Court and Spark for the first time in maybe 12 years, I sang every word of every song like I had heard them the day before. Today is her 67th birthday. I love you Joni and hope you are well.

God what a poor location for Joni to play. A basketball and hockey areana for a voice as pure as heaven's chorus. Joni wore a bolero outfit, black with a red ruffled shirt underneath. A flat brimmed hat completed the look and it was strangely different than the look of the hippie queen I'd grown up with. The band was tight though and Joni reeled off song after song from Hissing of Summer Lawn and even did Coyote from the yet unreleased Hejira. It was a bad night weather wise if I remember right? My first wife Annette I were seeing Joni our second time since we got married in '73. It would be one of the last concert we would see together. I asked her recently if she remembered these concerts and she gladly told me that they were some of her fondest memories too. Joni meant so much then and still now with her songs to aging children.

My older sister Diane and her husband Dale went to this show. I was 16. This was the first time I saw Joni play. We had fairly good seats, up high in the stands but off to the side, close to the stage. I remember when Joni played Real Good for Free, by the end of the song I had tears running down my face - looked over at my sister and she also was crying - which made us laugh! Of course we had played that album over and over and knew the song by heart but to see Joni play live it was as if we were hearing it for the first time.