Through the past brightly

by Patrick Emery
Australian
October 26, 2009

Joni: A Tribute to the Legendary Joni Mitchell. Melbourne International Arts Festival. Hamer Hall, Melbourne. October 23. Sydney Opera House, October 30; QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, November 4. Black Arm Band: dirtsong. Melbourne International Arts Festival. Melbourne Arts Centre. October 24.

AS a protagonist in the Laurel Canyon community in the 1960s, Canadian-born singer songwriter Joni Mitchell captured the dreams and aspirations of the folk rock scene. Later on, with those dreams collapsing under the weight of drug use and artistic self-indulgence, Mitchell used her elegant melodies and astute lyrical observations to describe the mutation of 1960s idealism into 70s narcissism and 80s corporate greed.

In Joni: A Tribute to the Legendary Joni Mitchell, seven Australian musicians - Wendy Matthews, Louise Perryman, Katie Noonan, Rachel Gaudry, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra and Virna Sanzone - came together at Melbourne's Hamer Hall to celebrate the songwriting talents of Joni Mitchell. The night began with a show of community spirit, as the performers lined up across stage for an acappella rendition of Shadows and Light. From there the performance travelled back to Mitchell's folk days, with Blue (featuring Noonan on piano) and Chelsea Morning, Little Green and a passionate version of Woodstock courtesy of Berardi. Bowra took centre stage with her acoustic guitar for You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio and Perryman rocked the crowd with Raised on Robbery before Matthews closed the first set in Both Sides Now.

With the sound problems that compromised the first set addressed, the second part of the evening took on a more personal element, as each performer shared her memories of various Mitchell songs with the crowd. Berardi's Be Cool was true to the jazz aesthetic of the original, Rachel Gaudry infected Black Crow with a cabaret sensibility and Bowra's Chinese Cafe explored Mitchell's conflicting emotions toward her past.

The night finished with Big Yellow Taxi, with Bowra on acoustic guitar trading lyrics from Mitchell's 1970 classic with her fellow performers.

In contrast to the pathos at the heart of many of Mitchell's compositions, the Black Arm Band's dirtsong celebrated the ongoing attachment between community, country, nature and spirit that is central to Aboriginal culture. Inspired by the words of Alexis Wright, and featuring a cast of black and white musicians, dirtsong is the third musical performance from the Black Arm Band following murundak in 2006, and Hidden Republic in 2008.

Central to dirtsong is the role of language in Aboriginal culture, and the show included songs sung entirely in Aboriginal languages. Singing in Bundjalung, Archie Roach opened the evening with Far Away Home from Rolf de Heer's The Tracker. In Madha yidi Mutti Mutti man Kutcha Edwards invoked his people's language from regional NSW to highlight the relationship between language and country. Roach's wife, Ruby Hunter, used Yarian Mi Tji (What's My Name) to pose a series of questions concerning associations between identity, place and cultural narrative.

In Coming Up Close Now, the combination of Mark Atkins's didgeridoo, Eugene Ball's trumpet and Greg Sheehan's hand-held percussion whipped up a percussive storm that enthralled the crowd. Jimmy Barnes and Shane Howard joined the stage to sing Howard's Waakoobawhan yannak in the Peek Whurrong language of southwest Victoria, while in This Land is My Land Paul Kelly affirmed the relationship between individual and country. Bart Willoughby's performance on a drum kit created from the industrial detritus of the modern desert environment highlighted the connection between the spirit of the past and the accoutrements of the present.