December 4, 2001

Posted December 04, 2001

An exciting surprise: Joni's next CD will also be a film!

Joni started recording her new orchestral CD, tentatively titled "Circle Game," last week at Air Lyndhurst, George Martin's studio complex in London; she's again working with conductor Vince Mendoza and an orchestra comprised of session musicians contracted by Isobel Griffiths. In addition to the title song, we can also expect to hear "Woodstock," "Amelia," "Judgment of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune)," "Be Cool," "Borderline," "Cherokee Louise," "Coyote," "For the Roses," and "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" on the CD (that's just a partial list). According to a report by Steve Hochman in the December 2 LA Times, filmmaker Allison Anders has signed on to make a documentary of the sessions.

A release date has not been announced for the CD or film.

In the LA Times story Anders says, "I've talked with Joni at length about what we want to do, and what's so exciting for me is the idea of her revisiting her old material. She just did 'Circle Game' with the full orchestra, and while the original is youthful with just her and the acoustic guitar, now she's singing alto and has all that experience to put into it."

In the film, Anders plans to use these new versions of the songs as entries into explorations of Joni's life and art. "The film will look at all the changes that have happened in her life since these songs were written," Anders says, "not the least of which is being reunited with her daughter and grandchildren."

"There's so much I've learned from [Mitchell's] experiences," Anders says. "As a woman, even though I work in a different medium, there's a lot of the same stuff. She says, 'Well, for a while I was called chick music.' Imagine--Joni Mitchell dismissed as chick music! And now I read an article about chick books, so here we go again."

Many Joniphiles remember Allison Anders from her well-received 1996 film Grace of My Heart, which she wrote and directed. Based partially on the life of Carole King, the film was the first place Joni's song "Man From Mars" appeared; performed by Kristen Vigard, the piano-based version on the soundtrack is a different arrangement from the one that appears on Joni's 1998 Taming the Tiger CD. A few thousand copies of the soundtrack with Joni singing the song were mistakenly released and quickly recalled; the copies that remain in circulation have become sought-after collectors' items. Joni started recording her new orchestral CD, tentatively titled "Circle Game," last week at Air Lyndhurst, George Martin's studio complex in London; she's again working with conductor Vince Mendoza and an orchestra comprised of session musicians contracted by Isobel Griffiths. In addition to the title song, we can also expect to hear "Woodstock," "Amelia," "Judgment of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune)," "Be Cool," "Borderline," "Cherokee Louise," "Coyote," "For the Roses," and "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" on the CD (that's just a partial list). According to a report by Steve Hochman in the December 2 LA Times, filmmaker Allison Anders has signed on to make a documentary of the sessions.

A release date has not been announced for the CD or film.

In the LA Times story Anders says, "I've talked with Joni at length about what we want to do, and what's so exciting for me is the idea of her revisiting her old material. She just did 'Circle Game' with the full orchestra, and while the original is youthful with just her and the acoustic guitar, now she's singing alto and has all that experience to put into it."

In the film, Anders plans to use these new versions of the songs as entries into explorations of Joni's life and art. "The film will look at all the changes that have happened in her life since these songs were written," Anders says, "not the least of which is being reunited with her daughter and grandchildren."

"There's so much I've learned from [Mitchell's] experiences," Anders says. "As a woman, even though I work in a different medium, there's a lot of the same stuff. She says, 'Well, for a while I was called chick music.' Imagine--Joni Mitchell dismissed as chick music! And now I read an article about chick books, so here we go again."

Many Joniphiles remember Allison Anders from her well-received 1996 film Grace of My Heart, which she wrote and directed. Based partially on the life of Carole King, the film was the first place Joni's song "Man From Mars" appeared; performed by Kristen Vigard, the piano-based version on the soundtrack is a different arrangement from the one that appears on Joni's 1998 Taming the Tiger CD. A few thousand copies of the soundtrack with Joni singing the song were mistakenly released and quickly recalled; the copies that remain in circulation have become sought-after collectors' items.