Honour Joni Mitchell’s Saskatoon roots

by John Gormley
Regina Leader-Post
July 3, 2015

As accounts emerge on the health of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, following an aneurysm in her Los Angeles home, the thought occurred that she will likely never again return here.

And why Saskatoon and Saskatchewan don't use Mitchell's considerable fame as a tourist draw makes no sense.

To ascribe the word "legend" to Joni Mitchell is an understatement.

She is one of the most often cited musical influences for folk, rock, pop and blues musicians. A wide swath of artists credit Mitchell, from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to Madonna, Prince and even Taylor Swift. With eight Grammys and many well-deserved accolades, she is a household name anywhere in the world.

Mitchell considers Saskatoon her hometown, where she lived from Grade 6 to the end of high school: "I spent my formative years here and was here during the birth of rock 'n' roll - I have great memories ... it is a nostalgic experience as soon as I hit town."

She hung out with friends at Waskesui, had her first paying gig in 1962 at the Louis Riel, a coffee shop on Saskatoon's Broadway Avenue, and for a time appeared at Regina's Fourth Dimension.

Like star-crossed lovers, somehow Joni Mitchell and Saskatchewan got separated, each wanting to reach out and do the right thing, but somehow screwing it up.

Shortly after those early folk gigs, Mitchell was touring out of Yorkville in Toronto; she was introduced to the LA music scene in 1967 and by 1969 her second album "Clouds" had established her path to music superstardom.

Perhaps it was the rapid ascent to fame during the tumultuous 1960s, a small-town hippie chick who got too big too fast and the folks back home turned their backs. Perhaps it was Mitchell's own perceptions of the world; who knows? But by now it doesn't matter.

Mitchell has always had a small, discreet and tightly private group of friends in Saskatoon who have never left her. Although with homes in LA and on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast for decades, Mitchell has never been far from Saskatchewan.

She commuted and had lengthy stays in recent years as her elderly parents faced declining health and eventually passed away - her Mom, Myrt, in 2007 and her Dad, Bill, in 2012 who lived to age 100 in a nursing home overlooking the South Saskatchewan River.

In that unique, respectful way of smaller cities, when Mitchell was frequently spotted in Saskatoon she would be politely given space, even deferentially ignored, because of who she was; onlookers knew that in many other places the reaction to a Joni Mitchell sighting would have made her feel uncomfortable or even violated her privacy.

But the quid pro quo that celebrities from small towns figure out early is not to hide and appear aloof, seeming above the local folks.

If a true Joni Mitchell fan from Saskatchewan - not wanting to stalk her at her parents' house - had genuinely wanted to connect with the most famous person to have ever come from Saskatoon, what would they have done?

In 1969 they could have attended two concerts and the only public autograph session she ever held - at Simpson Sears, where she once worked.