News archive

JoniMitchell.com has been bringing you the news on Joni since the day the website went live in 1996. It's all archived and searchable here. In addition to the news, you can find an archive of "upcoming tributes and events" that have been listed on the site as well.

News archive

Artists from across the musical spectrum will join the national library and U.S. leaders to honor the great songwriting duo of Elton John and Bernie Taupin in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, March 20, as they are awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an all-star tribute concert.

The lineup will include performances by 2023 Gershwin Prize honoree Joni Mitchell, 2020 Gershwin Prize honoree Garth Brooks, Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Metallica, Maren Morris, Billy Porter, Charlie Puth and Jacob Lusk of Gabriels, along with appearances by John and Taupin. Porter will host the television event. The concert is by invitation only. The event takes place in Washington DC on 3/20/24. It will air on PBS on 4/8. More information here

Joni won her 10th Grammy in last night's ceremony in Los Angeles - 11th if you include her Lifetime Achievement Award. She won Best Folk Album for the 2023 release of "At Newport".

Joni won her first Grammy in 1970, but her first actual singing appearance on the awards show didn’t take place until last night, as she sang “Both Sides Now” - done “Joni Jam”-style, with Joni seated on a comfortable-looking throne with her recent trademark cane, surrounded by similarly seated all-star accompanists. (Photo by Emma McIntyre)

Due to overwhelming demand, a second Hollywood Bowl show has been added for October 20th. The only way to get access to the artist pre-sale code is if you sign up for Joni's email list. Tickets go on-sale Thursday, Feb. 1 at 10am PT. Get on the list here.

The legendary Joni Mitchell will perform her first Los Angeles headlining show in over 24 years at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, October 19 – joined by the Joni Jam. Pre-sales start tomorrow at 10 a.m. with password JJAM24. Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, February 2 at 10 a.m.

Joni will make her Grammy performance debut at the 2024 Grammy Awards, set for Sunday Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. It's surprising that she has never performed on Music's Biggest Night because she has been a Grammy fixture for decades. She won her first of nine competitive Grammys in 1970. In addition, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2002.

Joni is nominated for best folk album for Joni Mitchell at Newport [Live]. She won her first Grammy 54 years ago in a folk category (best folk performance) for Clouds.
- Paul Grein.

Court and Spark is the most commercially successful album of Joni’s career. This LP, to be released on Nov 24, features demos from the iconic album, including "Help Me" and "Raised On Robbery." All tracks taken from Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)

Side One:
1. PIANO SUITE: Down to You/Court and Spark/Car on a Hill/Down to You (Reprise) [12:32]
2. PEOPLE’S PARTIES [3:02]

Side Two:
1. HELP ME [3:31]
2. JUST LIKE THIS TRAIN [3:51]
3. RAISED ON ROBBERY [2:57]
4. TROUBLE CHILD [3:57]

More information here

Joni has been nominated for a "Best Folk Album" Grammy for the Newport album. "From breakthrough acts to legacy artists, we are amazed by all the musicians recognized for their outstanding contributions to music today," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement. The awards will be held at the Crytpo.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 2024. Joni has been nominated 20 times in her career and has won 10 awards. More information here

Joni is the subject of a new music biography series ‘Legend’ from BBC Radio 4 exploring the extraordinary life stories of pioneering artists who changed music forever. ‘Joni Mitchell: Verbatim’ will mark the iconic singer/songwriter’s 80th birthday on November 7.

Set to broadcast on Saturday 4 November, ‘Archive on 4: Joni Mitchell: Verbatim’ will air from 8pm to 9pm. It will incorporate previously unheard interviews, studio out takes, rare demo recordings and archive dating back to Mitchell’s very first radio interview recorded in 1964, this programme is the story of Joni’s life and career – told in her own words. More information here

Raditz’s book is not just an intimate and surprising portrait of Joni Mitchell at the very point she became famous - it is a front-line account of a time, place and attitude that have passed into legend. This is the story of a man who found himself trapped in a song, and the extraordinary events that led up to it. Packed with food, wine, smells and laughter, Genesis is a sensuous wonder in which Raditz’s enthusiasm for life vibrates off the page.”
—Kate Mossman, Arts Editor, The New Statesman magazine More information here

Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), is out today on Rhino Records. It’s the latest entry in Rhino’s ongoing, GRAMMY-winning series exploring the vast untapped archives of rare Joni Mitchell recordings — a project guided intimately by Mitchell’s own vision and personal touch. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is available both in a 5CD / digital version and a 4LP cut-down version, both with an accompanying book featuring photos and a conversation about this period between Joni Mitchell and longtime friend Cameron Crowe. More information here

Joni has unveiled a never-before-heard song “Like Veils Said Lorraine” today from the forthcoming Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975). Mitchell wrote this song and recorded it as a demo in late 1971/early 1972 at A&M Studios in Hollywood, CA. She explains that this song was a piece of dialogue that happened with the real-estate woman who showed her properties in British Columbia. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is set for release on October 6, 2023 via Rhino. Listen here.

Come 1972, Joni’s singular songwriting talent and poetic gifts were undeniable. Fresh off the back-to-back Platinum-certified releases of 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon and 1971’s Blue — totemic albums whose artfulness and ubiquity would influence generations of songwriters — Mitchell had grown wary of mounting media scrutiny. Everything from her style choices to romantic partners became the subject of far more gossip column inches than were ever dedicated to the lifestyle minutiae of her male counterparts.

In response, she had pulled back, announcing an early retirement from the stage in 1970 and moving to the quiet expanses of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. It was a fruitful change of scenery. Inspired by her proximity to nature and refreshed by the peaceful seclusion, she began constructing the songs that would become For The Roses. This respite thrust Mitchell into a remarkably fertile creative period, yielding a run of albums — 1972’s For The Roses, 1974’s Court And Spark, and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns — that would simultaneously expand and refine the scope of her music. Her adventurous, intricate arrangements and growing formidability as a bandleader injected these songs with a clarity of purpose, a potent muscularity, and a sense of possibility — it is among the most exciting eras of a near peerless career.

This era comes into even greater focus on Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), out October 6, 2023 on Rhino Records. It’s the latest entry in Rhino’s ongoing, GRAMMY-winning series exploring the vast untapped archives of rare Joni Mitchell recordings — a project guided intimately by Mitchell’s own vision and personal touch. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) will be available both in a 5CD / digital version and a 4LP cut-down version, both with an accompanying book featuring photos and a conversation about this period between Joni Mitchell and longtime friend Cameron Crowe. More information here

Joni’s triumphant return to the stage on July 24, 2022, is released today on a new live album from Rhino, AT NEWPORT, available on CD and 2-LP black vinyl. Produced by close collaborator Brandi Carlile, along with Mitchell, the music has also been released on digital and streaming services and Dolby Atmos. A clear-vinyl version of the 2-LP set is available exclusively from Indie Retail and Barnes & Noble.

The first song Joni Mitchell sang at a “Joni Jam” - the intimate gathering of friends she and Brandi Carlile hosted during her recovery from a brain aneurysm - was George Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Today, Rhino has unveiled a mesmerizing new performance of the tune, recorded live during Mitchell’s surprise return to the stage at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival. The entire At Newport live album will be available on July 28 - Newport Folk Festival 2023 weekend - via the official store.

When Joni mesmerized the Newport Folk Festival audience last summer with a surprise performance, she 'breathed new meaning into some of her most famous lyrics' (New York Times). Today, the powerful live recording of her beloved hit 'A Case Of You' is available digitally now. Originally released in 1971 on Blue, this new live recording features vocals by Marcus Mumford and Brandi Carlile.

Listen to “A Case Of You,” available digitally today on your preferred platform.

The entire At Newport live album will be available on July 28 - Newport Folk Festival 2023 weekend - via Rhino.

Joni stunned the Newport Folk Festival audience last summer when she gave a surprise performance – her first in 20 years – delivering a heartfelt set filled with some of her greatest songs.

Mitchell’s triumphant return to the stage on July 24, 2022, will be featured on a new live album from Rhino, AT NEWPORT, available on July 28, 2023 on CD and 2-LP black vinyl. Produced by close collaborator Brandi Carlile, along with Mitchell, the music will also be released the same day on digital and streaming services and Dolby Atmos. A clear-vinyl version of the 2-LP set will be available exclusively from Indie Retail and Barnes & Noble. Mitchell’s Newport performance of her classic song “Both Sides Now” is available today digitally.

Although they rarely appeared together on the same bill, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni moved in many of the same circles early in their careers- most notably, each appearing often at the Riverboat, the famous Toronto coffeehouse. This was the premier area club at the time, and Joni and Gordon (along with Neil Young) were the top talents.

For Canadians, Mr. Lightfoot was a national hero, a homegrown star who stayed home even after achieving spectacular success in the United States and who catered to his Canadian fans with cross-country tours. “Sometimes I wonder why I’m being called an icon, because I really don’t think of myself that way,” Mr. Lightfoot told The Toronto Globe and Mail in 2008. “I’m a professional musician, and I work with very professional people. It’s how we get through life.”

Gordon died Monday night. He was 84.

Text adapted from William Grimes at the NYT.

On the horizon... Cary Raditz' new memoir "Carey: Genesis of the Song" to be released in June. An excerpt:

Ahhh. “California.” I heard it first in London with James’s guitar backing her dulcimer. And then Henry Lewy played it for me at A&M. It’s a great song, although I’m not flattered with “Redneck on a Grecian Isle . . . ,” and “ . . . he kept my camera to sell.” That goddamn camera. People are always asking me about it. She gave me the camera to film Matala, to film its fragile presence like Brassaï had captured an essence of Paris in 1930—but that would be a flattering comparison—it was about recording a point in time and space. Joni had witnessed the fragility of Matala, how the police had closed down the caves while she was there. She knew Matala and its cultural lifestyle were bound to change and disappear, not unlike Paradise in “Big Yellow Taxi.”

Stay tuned for more information!

The PBS broadcast of Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song will be available in Canada as well as the USA. The program can be viewed on PBS.org or with the PBS App - available for Roku, Apple TV 4, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV in Canada.

Also, the broadcasts from these PBS border stations will be available to Canadian viewers:

WMED-TV (available in New Brunswick)
KFME-TV Fargo (available in Winnipeg/Northwestern Ontario in high-definition)
KGFE-TV Grand Forks (available in Winnipeg)
KTCI Minneapolis (available in Thunder Bay)
WCFE-TV Plattsburgh (available in Montreal)
WPBS-TV Watertown (available in Ottawa)
WNED-TV Buffalo (available in Southern Ontario)
WQLN-TV Erie (available in London)
WTVS Detroit Public Television (Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Halifax, St. Johns and Ontario. Well watched in Québec and have wonderful reach in communities of all sizes, from the Atlantic Provinces to the Yukon.)

More information here.

Musical artists joined the national library and American leaders to honor music legend Joni Mitchell in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, March 1, as she was awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an all-star tribute concert.

The lineup included performances by James Taylor, Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Marcus Mumford, Graham Nash, Angelique Kidjo, Diana Krall, Celisse, Lucius and Ledisi.

PBS stations will broadcast the concert — “Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” — at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, March 31 (check local listings) and on PBS.org and the PBS App as part of the co-produced Emmy Award-winning music series. It will also be broadcast to U.S. Department of Defense locations around the world via the American Forces Network. More information.