Musicians! The transcription team is expanding its reach. If you are a guitarist, a pianist, a bass player, or just someone who loves Joni's music - you can now follow the team and learn about the magic behind Joni's music.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, RHINO is giving away a copy of Joni Mitchell's LOVE HAS MANY FACES on vinyl and one hardcover copy of Joni - The Joni Mitchell Sessions book by Norman Seeff. The limited-edition, 8LP boxed set is presented in a hard-bound deluxe folio package. Limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies, it includes 53 songs on eight 180-gram LPs. Etchings of Mitchell’s artwork are featured on four individual album sides, each one signifying the end of an act in the ballet. Enter to win!

The International Folk Music Awards (IFMAs) was held tonight at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montréal, Canada. The Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented each year during the annual event. Recipients are determined by the voting members of Folk Alliance International and are presented to a living recipient (Joni), a memorial recipient (Leonard Cohen), and an organization or recognized academic (fRoots Magazine). Joni was not in attendance and long-time friend Eric Andersen agreed to accept the award for her. Eric got stuck on a snowbound train attempting to get to the event, and texted them his acceptance comments. They agreed to read it, but didn't do so.

"I am happy to say that Joni is very grateful to receive this important award and proud as a Canadian to receive it here in this sacred city. She's sorry she can't be here to see everyone and accept it personally. To most of us, she remains the flower in the desert who could always find the truth on other people's lies and beauty in the wreckage. She remains a warrior with a stubborn streak and unrelenting stamina who could drink a case of anyone and still be on her feet!--Thank you with open hearts."

See the video that Folk Alliance International created for the event.

Good news for global Joni fans! The Joni 75 movie will be coming to theaters outside of the US on March 21st - tickets go on sale February 21. The film also premieres on the small screen nationwide in the USA beginning March 2 on PBS (check local listings). Streams beginning March 3 via PBS Passport and PBS apps. More details as we get them.

Joni made a rare public appearance last night at Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammys gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Clive introduced her to the crowd, saying "I'm so touched that she comes to share the night with all of us, please welcome the inimitable Joni Mitchell." The star-studded party was attended by Nancy Pelosi, Alice Cooper, Barbra Streisand, Caitlin Jenner, Tim Cook, Brandi Carlile, Sammy Hagar, Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, Lou Adler and many more!

The upcoming March issue MOJO magazine celebrates Joni over 22 pages, with a classic in-depth interview, plus rare pics and insights and a 15-track CD of Joni songs and artists, featuring Julia Holter, Frazey Ford, Nadia Reid, Case/Lang/Veirs, Sun Kil Moon, Tomberlin, Wendy & Lisa and more. Pick one up in your local bookstore or get a copy delivered to your home.

Rhino Records will be releasing Joni's album "Blue" on... you guessed it... blue vinyl on January 22. Limited to 6,000 copies! More information here.

The 120-minute 'Joni 75' performance will show one night only - February 7 - in 350-400 theaters across the USA. Details are sketchy but we'll post more here as they come to light.

Norman Seeff's long-awaited book, the extraordinary collection of photographs entitled "Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions" is being shipped this week. It is a creative partnership that has lasted for over 40 years. Joni and Norman Seeff, a rock-and-roll photographer with a host of legendary subjects in his portfolio, did some of their best work together. Through over a dozen sessions with Joni, Norman captured the many facets of her personality in some of her most famous images.

Available through Norman's website are 2 versions of the book:

The Premium Edition:
-An 11x14 inch print.
-Password protected access to Seeff’s library of filmed sessions featuring multiple artists exploring Joni as the Boundary Dweller and innovative Artist.
-Seeff’s 7-Stage road map of the Boundary Dweller Archetype as exemplified by Joni. This schematic serves as a tool to empower personal creativity.

The Collectors Edition:
-A signed copy of the book inside a slipcase
-original limited edition signed 11x14 inch print
-A 30x40 inch signed lithographic poster
-Access to Seeff’s video library and his 7-Stage road map as described above

The standard edition, without any of the above features, is available through Amazon and other booksellers starting on December 18th.

The saga of Woody, Buzz and the gang continues. Disney and Pixar released the first trailer to "Toy Story 4." The dreamy teaser features everyone's favorite toys floating through the air. The sequence is set to "Both Sides Now."

Followers of the radio show "Live From Here" will notice that Chris Thile and friends saluted Joni on yesterday's show with a rendition of "Help Me." It begins at 1:25:19

The beautiful 11x14 inch hardcover version of Norman Seeff's book, currently available for pre-orders at $60, will increase to the retail price of $75 on October 24. The signed version will remain at $100 & the Collectors Edition at $650 and Seeff will add a personalized greeting for those who order either of these versions via the website and provide the name(s) for the greeting.

For all you completists out there, Joni's most recent compilation "Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced" is being released as a 180-gram 8LP vinyl box set. See more information here.

The Music Center has added James Taylor and Brandi Carlile to the previously announced line-up of singers and musicians who will honor Joni Mitchell on her 75th birthday as part of JONI 75: A Birthday Celebration Live at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on November 6 and 7. A limited number of additional tickets have been released and are going fast.

James Taylor and Brandi Carlile will join Glen Hansard, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall, Kris Kristofferson, Los Lobos, Graham Nash, Seal, and Rufus Wainwright to perform songs from Mitchell’s prolific career. Co-musical directors providing the musical arrangements for the evenings are drummer Brian Blade, who recorded three studio albums and toured extensively with Mitchell, and, pianist, composer, arranger producer Jon Cowherd.

In August of 1969, a dairy farm in the state of New York hosted a pivotal moment in the history of pop music. Taking place only two years after the "Summer of Love” and one year after the tumultuous events of 1968, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair put an exclamation point on the transformational decade of the 1960s.

Joni did not attend Woodstock, but her song of the same name captures an opposition inherent to the turbulent and divisive era. “We are stardust...caught in the devil’s bargain, ...and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

For the 50th anniversary of this event, join us at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee for a campus-wide celebration featuring concerts, clinics, exhibits, films, and speakers.

We are currently accepting submissions for symposium speaker proposals. The committee hopes that Mitchell's evocative lyrics inspire a similarly wide-ranging set of proposals. For more information, see the Call for Papers.

Max Bennett's first professional gig was in 1949, and throughout his long career he played with such legends as Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, George Harrison, Joan Baez, Joni, and many more. Max is often associated with the famous 'Wrecking Crew', a loose collective of session musicians based in Los Angeles whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1973, Bennett, along with Tom Scott, founded the L.A. Express which served as the core band for Joni's Court and Spark album. A subsequent iteration of the group backed Joni on her 1974 tour which spawned the live Miles of Aisles album.

Max Bennett was 90 years old. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.