The News   

Joni's version of "All I Want" will be included on the soundtrack to the film "The Kids Are All Right", starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. August 3rd is the scheduled release date. "Filmmaker Lisa Cholodenkob's Sundance hit 'The Kids Are All Right' is an intimate portrait of a "modern family" consisting of mom and mom, daughter and son, with the "dad" role narrowed down to a specimen selected from the local sperm bank. When the kids become teenagers they decide to look for their biological father - cue dramatic tension and the upheaval of the uncomplicated (if traditionally unconventional) family life. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening star as the middle-aged lesbian partners, Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (the Alice of Tim Burton's 'Wonderland') as one of the teenage kids, and Mark Ruffalo as the sperm donor father."
 

The Lynn Skinner Quintet brings their popular Joni Mitchell Tribute to Swallow Hill Music in Denver this summer. Daniels Hall is the perfect venue for 4 decades of Joni's music, complete with contemporary arrangements and anecdotes about Joni's amazing career as a songwriter, performer, and artist. Part education, lots of laughs, and all music! More info
 

David Gizara, host of Thursday Night Jazz at KLCC in Eugene, Oregon will be presenting his annual "Joni Mitchell Jazz Summer Solstice Radio Special" on June 24 starting at 9 pm (Pacific time). This show features instrumental and vocal jazz covers of the music of Joni Mitchell. This year's show will feature the Joni Mitchell songs most covered by other artists. The plan is to segue together sometimes multiple versions of the top twenty covered Mitchell songs in kind of a tone poem format. Be sure and tune in on the internet!
 

Folks, we are quite confident that the website has gone down for the last time. Our previous (unnamed) hosting company suspended the site a half a dozen times for "overloading the server". Each time, we obliged by rewriting our databases and tweaking our code to try to comply with their requests. Ultimately, over the past few days, we made our hejira from the host in question and moved to another host with a better understanding of our code base and a much more helpful attitude. Our apologies for all the downtime - we no longer plan to weave a course of grace and havoc and vow to remember that you get what you pay for.
 

Dear friends,

We are very pleased to announce that advance tickets can now be bought for the May 22nd CD release concert for our new album Safaris to the Heart: The Songs of Joni Mitchell.

We'll have our full 7-piece Mutts of the Planet band performing the incredible music of Joni Mitchell. If you've heard the CD already, you know that the band features amazing musicians and can really lift the roof. If you thought Joni Mitchell was a 60's folk singer, you'll be blown away by the music she wrote in subsequent decades: world music, beat poetry, jazz, pop-rock. We do it all, and we'll be shooting a video that night too so come out and help us make it a great night. If you haven't heard the CD yet, well, we just might have some copies for sale that night! And of course you can listen to tracks from it and order it from our website.

May 22nd 7.30 p.m at Tango Del Rey in San Diego.

From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks.

From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks.

The room has great sound and is visually stunning. Parking is easy and plentiful. The venue holds about 160 max so we urge you to buy your tickets in advance (see below) as we usually sell out the house.

There's a full bar and you can order food (pastas, pizza, salads etc) but please note the food will only be available before the show.

Buy your tickets in advance using PayPal from http://www.robinadler.com/calendar.html ($20 advance + $1 service charge; $25 at the door)

Hope to see you May 22nd!
Robin & Dave
 

"Safaris to the Heart: The Songs Of Joni Mitchell" is being released today. Recorded, in part, at the SoCal JoniFest 2009, this CD features San Diego's finest. Place your order here. Partial proceeds go to support JoniMitchell.com.

Vocalist Robin Adler and her husband, multi-instrumentalist and music producer Dave Blackburn, have been lifelong fans of the music of Joni Mitchell and, in early 2006, embarked on the ambitious project of learning her music in all its complexity and through all its epochs. To realize this goal, they formed a band dedicated solely to this music, named Mutts of the Planet, after a lyric from one of Mitchell's songs. The band features several of San Diego's finest musicians, many with long pedigrees in the jazz world, including Adler herself.

Mutts of the Planet explore Joni Mitchell's music from both a jazz improvisatory angle and as a traditional homage. The band has evolved many original jazz inflected arrangements of iconic Mitchell standards such as "Woodstock", "River" and "Both Sides Now" and tackles some of the most challenging material from the later periods in Mitchell's career. The early years are also represented in an acoustic duo setting for part of the show.

The result has been a hugely successful series of sold out concerts over a four-year period. The music is presented along with backstory and biographical details of Mitchell's life and work, and this has been a favorite aspect for many listeners. Mutts of the Planet celebrate the release of their new CD "Safaris to the Heart: The Songs of Joni Mitchell" It is the culmination of several months of work, from both the musicians themselves and members of the international Joni Mitchell web community, known as the JMDL.

As of 2010 it appears that Joni Mitchell herself has retired from the performing stage and this project endeavors to keep her music alive in all its beauty, as a live show and now as an album of lush reinterpretations. The February 2010 edition of the San DiegoTroubadour features Adler & Blackburn and this project as their feature story in which the author writes: "I can honestly say that I wasn't in the least prepared for the 'world class-ness' of Robin's voice"

Audience testimonials from the RobinAdler.com guestbook:
"Robin's vocals were dead on. I thought Joni was actually in the room!"
"Robin was incarnating the soul and spirit of our beloved Joni"
"Was it worth the 2,281 miles I traveled to hear it? Oh, heck yeah!"

Robin Adler (lead vocals)
Dave Blackburn (guitars and vocals)
Dave Curtis (bass, keyboards and vocals)
Barnaby Finch (keyboards and vocals)
Jeff Olson (drums)
Britt Doehring (backup vocals)
 

Wilton Library's Connecticut's Own Sunday concert series takes a slight departure from chamber music on March 21, when local vocalist Suzanne Sheridan performs "Both Sides Now," a musical tribute from 4 to 5 p.m. Ms. Sheridan, a regular performer with the Exit 43 band, appeared last June at the library's annual meeting with the band, and returns for this solo performance.

The free concert is a tribute to Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Joni Mitchell's greatest hits include "Both Sides Now," "Big Yellow Taxi," "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio," and "Chelsea Morning." Cohen's discography includes "Suzanne," "Anthem," "Like a Bird on a Wire," and "Hallelujah." While reading the book Girls Like Us, Suzanne discovered that Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell were briefly involved in a love affair in the early '70s. Musically, at least, Suzanne has reunited them.

According to Ms. Sheridan, she is "a singer, songwriter and guitarist who loves connecting with people through music." She has won honors in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and has sung jingles for Pepsi, Hardees, Hasbro, Texaco and others. As a songwriter, she has penned "90 Pound Suburban Housewife Driving in Her SUV." She also is a guitarist, photographer, workshop leader and a resident of Westport. She performs in theaters, churches, hospitals and clubs, and her solo singing career has taken her internationally as well.

Wilton Library's Connecticut's Own concert series is free of charge. Advance registration is recommended. Pre-registrants must arrive by 3:50 p.m. to be guaranteed seating. After 3:50 p.m., and if space is available, waitlisted and walk-in registrants will be admitted. For information, directions and to register, visit www.wiltonlibrary.org or call (203) 762-3950 ext. 213. Wilton Library is located in the heart of Wilton Center, Connecticut at 137 Old Ridgefield Road. The final concert date in the series is April 25 with Larry Shiller and Olga Gurevich.
 

Available June of 2010, Experience Music Project (EMP) presents Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash. This dynamic new exhibition showcases some of the most memorable photography in the history of popular music: iconic performance shots of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Nirvana; portraits of Bo Diddley, Joni Mitchell, and Johnny Cash; as well as intimate photographs of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. All chosen by a legendary musician who is also highly regarded as a photographer, collector, and pioneer in digital imaging and printing.

As guest curator, Graham Nash brings his rich musical history, keen eye, and storytelling skills to an exhibition of 98 rock 'n' roll images taken by 40 renowned rock photographers, including Anton Corbijn, Lynn Goldsmith, Annie Leibovitz, Daniel Kramer, Jim Marshall, Neal Preston, Mick Rock, Francesco Scavullo, Alfred Wertheimer, and Nash himself. More information here.
 

Jay Blakesberg is a San Francisco-based photographer and video director whose work appears regularly in many magazines, including Rolling Stone and Guitar Player. The March 4 event is a Los Angeles premiere exhibit and will feature over 40 images of recognizable faces from the past and present musical landscape. The range of artists featured will include Radiohead, Nirvana, Willie Nelson Jerry Garcia, Widespread Panic, U2, Joni Mitchell, Phish, Dave Matthews, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more. Opened in 1998, Mr Musichead Gallery is LA's first gallery devoted to featuring a vast and unique collection of album cover art, poster art, fine art and photography that chronicles rock and roll's rich heritage. More info here.
 

Saturday, March 6; Joni Mitchell Tribute at Hugh's Room in Toronto, hosted by Mia Sheard. Featuring Lily Frost, Wilderness of Manitoba, Leah Salomaa, Paisley Jura & Nick Zubeck. Band: Joan Besen, Ryan Granville-Martin, Chris Gartner, Colleen Allen & Kurt Swinghammer. $22 in advance or $25 at the door.
 

JoniMitchell.com is back on-line after a bit of an extended absence. Seems the site is getting a little too popular for its own good and is overwhelming our server. In light of this, we regret having to announce that you must now be logged into JoniMitchell.com in order to access the Library of Articles and to do a site-wide search. Registering is a quick process and all we need is to verify that you are a human being with a valid email address. We will never use your email address for anything.

The Library of Articles relies on frequent database access and has come to be "hammered" by automated bots across the globe, overwhelming the server. The only way to keep them out, keep the site up, and keep the site free to everyone is to require a log in. Consider it your own personal Joni Mitchell Library Card. Thanks for your understanding.
 

Lichfield Arts will kick off life at their temporary home with a performance from Sally Barker. Holy Cross Hall on Chapel Lane will be the venue when she pays tribute to the songs of Joni Mitchell on January 30. Sally a popular performer in Lichfield and has appeared in the city as a member of the Poozies. She'll be joined by Glen Hughes (keyboard/dulcimer) and Debbie Cassell (banjo/vocals) for this latest performance. More info...
 

As Winston Churchill famously said, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key." The key to the mysterious boxed set seems to be Joni herself. In an interview with the Vancouver Sun published today, Joni says "I was trying to put together a box set, which I think I'm going to abort, I don't know that I'm going to do it or not. I don't like listening back, no I don't." So there we have it, not a definite no but pretty darn close.
 

On Friday evening, March 17, 1967, Ed Sciaky went to the 2nd Fret (operated by Manny "Money" Rubin) in downtown Philadelphia (on Sansom Street) and recorded an interview with Joni Mitchell. Recorded between sets, this recording was mastered at 7 and a half IPS on Shamrock recording tape, a cheap brand of audio tape but all that college student Ed Sciaky could afford. It was recorded on an Ampex 354 mono tape recorder with an RCA 44 microphone. Ed Sciaky spoke into one side of the mic and Joni into the other. Since Joni spoke softly, her level was lower than Ed. The interview was engineered by Mike Biel, a student executive at the station at that time.

The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia (of which Ed is now a member), an organization of 350 area broadcasters, has recently equalized and adjusted the levels of the interview and the complete audio interview is now available on their website. They are proud to make this priceless interview again available to the public. The entire interview has not been heard since it was aired the next evening, Saturday, March 18th on Ed's folk music show called "Broadside," which was broadcast Saturday evenings from 8 pm and 12 midnight over WRTI-FM, the campus radio station of Temple University in Philadelphia. The 1974 airing over WMMR was an excerpt.
 

Jim Caruso's Cast Party is proud to present the newly-formed band, LIMBSAKIMBO in "Court And Spark," at Birdland on Sunday, January 31st at 6pm. The concert will be part of the award-winning series Broadway at Birdland. Sunday, January 31 at 6pm Broadway at Birdland 315 West 44 Street, NYC 212-581-3080

LIMBSAKIMBO follows up it's summer tribute to Marvin Gaye with an exploration and reevaluation of the poetry, intellect, and mystery of Joni Mitchell. From folk to funk, jazz to soul, Joni Mitchell has reinvented and exploded musical styles, and her work inspires Limbsakimbo to continue their pursuit of stylistic freedom and adventurous music making.

LIMBSAKIMBO is Lindsay Mendez, Michael Aarons, and Chris Fenwick, whose creative energy and musical restlessness marked their work together on the recent Broadway revival of Grease. The band will also be joined by Damien Bassman on drums, Mark Vanderpoel on bass, and Summer Boggess on cello.

Lead singer Lindsay Mendez was an original cast member of the most recent Broadway revival of Grease, playing the role of Jan. She also served as a "Mennonette" to Sherie Rene Scott in the critically acclaimed Everyday Rapture at 2nd Stage Theater this past spring. She can currently be seen as Betty Jean in The Marvelous Wonderettes at the Westside Theater.

Guitarist and arranger Michael Aarons has worked with Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Barry Manilow, Patti LaBelle, Paul McCartney, Luther Vandross, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Liza Minnelli, Elton John and others. He originated the guitar chairs at Laugh Whore, High Fidelity, Grease, 9 to 5, and Memphis, where he currently plays. Michael is an arranger on the hit show, Next To Normal. As a composer, Michael's music has been featured on Lifetime, Style Network and MTV.

Pianist and arranger Chris Fenwick has musical directed productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, and across the country. He has also accompanied and conducted numerous artists in concert including Patti LuPone, Elaine Stritch and Audra McDonald. His most recent project was the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's Giant. Currently, he can be seen as Associate Musical Director on The Addams Family.
 

A series of paintings inspired by a 30-year-old album by Joni Mitchell is featured in a dual exhibition opening Friday at Shawn's Gate Art Gallery & Studio, 409 Main Street in Medina, New York. The show, on view through Jan. 14, 2010, features paintings by Mark Weld of Middleport and metal sculpture by Emil Smith of Medina. More information by calling the Gallery at (585) 733-2153.
 

Joni Mitchell's star-maker machinery inspires a tribute
BY LISA RICH
35th Anniversary Celebration of Joni Mitchell

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, November 21
Where: Concerts at the Crossing, 268 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, Titusville
Admission: $23 at the door; concertsatthecrossing.com

When musician Joni Mitchell released her album "Court and Spark" in 1974, she dared to do something different.

The songstress was deliberately stepping away from the folk rock niche that had gained her adoration and scores of publicity and fans.

It was time to experiment with other sounds: jazz and jazz fusion. The process paid off. she later won a Grammy award for the album for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

Thirty-five years later, a group of musicians in their own right are paying tribute to Mitchell's release of "Court and Spark" and her decades of inspiring music that followed the album.

Tomorrow night at Concerts at the Crossing in Titusville, singer/songwriter Maura Kennedy is leading the 35th anniversary celebration.

Joining Kennedy will be three of her favorite musical friends including Sloan Wainwright, Kelly Flint and LisaBeth (with Maggie Marshall).
 

In January 2010, NPR will launch a year-long exploration of 50 great voices in recorded history. The series isn't an attempt to catalog the so-called "greatest" singers. Instead, they hope to discover and re-discover awe-inspiring vocalists from around the world and across time. Earlier, NPR asked the public to nominate artists for the series and received thousands of options. NPR and a panel of experts are in the process of whittling them down to about 100 singers - a mix of familiar names and surprising discoveries. Currently, down to around 130 singers, Joni is still in the running! Let's help Joni get recognized as one of the 50 great voices. Cast your vote!

Also, the word from the man on the street is that Reprise has begun handling the new releases from Rhino. There was some concern about Rhino's health and it appears now that there still may be hope for the release of Joni's boxed set what with Reprise stepping in. Sorry for the mere speculation, but the status of this set seems to be the most closely guarded secret since the appointment of the pope. Thanks to Greg for the tip.
 

Joni's birthday is November 7th. Wish her a Happy Birthday here. There is no guarantee that she'll see it, but one never knows!
 

Happy Birthday Roberta Joan ~ A Star-Studded Joni Mitchell Tribute, will be held Saturday, November 7th at 7pm at Your Inner Vagabond in Pittsburgh, PA. In this very special homage to Joni Mitchell on her 66th birthday, a diverse array of artists (featuring Autumn Ayers, Brewer's Row, The Weathered Road, Heather Kropf, Mark Dignam, Maddie Georgi, Ruby Vere, and The Thomas Twins) will show how Joni has influenced their own songwriting by performing their original songs as well some of their favorites from Joni. Joni-philes will not want to miss a minute of this show, which starts promptly at 7pm. Doors: 6:30pm, Show: 7pm-11:30pm, $8 cover in the Back Lounge. Produced by TR Creative Services.