News & Events

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.

Most recent news

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.

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Upcoming local tributes and events

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‘Hejira’ is a 7-piece band set up to celebrate and honour the masterpiece works of Joni Mitchell, mostly from the late ‘70s. Having released the albums ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’, ‘Hejira’, ‘Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter’ and ‘Mingus’ (regarded as her ‘jazz period’), Joni then toured briefly with a band formed from the crème de la crème of contemporaneous jazz musicians (Metheny, Mays, Brecker, Pastorius and Alias). The tour was recorded, producing the outstanding live album, ‘Shadows And Light’; it is from this album that the band Hejira is drawing the body of its repertoire. Comprising highly experienced jazz musicians, this band is fronted by the brilliant Hattie Whitehead who not only has - in her own way - assimilated the poise, power and beauty of Joni’s vocals, but also plays guitar with Joni’s stylistic mannerisms. Expect an evening of the ‘great’ songs from Mitchell’s back catalogue! More information here

Over the past five decades, Joni Mitchell has created a body of songs and recordings that defies definition. Her influence on subsequent generations of musicians, from Prince to Taylor Swift to Diana Krall, is almost unmatched. She is the bridge between the rise of the folk singer after World War II and the current generation of multimedia musical artists. In this course, we will study six recordings that marked Mitchell’s transition from an ethereal folk performer to a badass jazz/rock innovator who collaborated with such major figures as Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. We will look closely at her lyric style and her unique approach to musical composition, tuning, and sound. The instructor will present perspectives and insights into Mitchell’s writing, and together we will discuss the following albums: Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, and Hejira. The instructor will circulate some reading about Mitchell’s work, focusing on a different theme each week. More information here

A special concert commissioned by Llais to pay homage to singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, focusing largely on two albums that were fully orchestrated: ‘Both Sides Now’ (2000) and ‘Travelogue’ (2002), performed by special guest singers Charlotte Church, Laura Mvula, ESKA and Gwenno, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Mitchell, one of the most celebrated and influential artists of her generation, originated in the American folk scene of the 1960s, along with the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and she quickly established herself as a visionary writer and activist.

The album ‘Both Sides Now’ was conceived as a song cycle documenting a relationship from initial flirtation to optimistic consummation, ending in disillusionment and ironic despair, and finally the philosophical overview of acceptance and the probability of the cycle repeating itself.

Always open to experimentation, Mitchell later started to include jazz influences in her writing as evident in albums such as ‘Court and Spark’ and the lush orchestrations we hear on ‘Both Sides Now’ and ‘Travelogue’.

More information here

"From-the-heart" London soul singer Gina Foster has enlisted some of UK's finest players all with a shared love for Joni Mitchell's music - an artist they consider to be one of the greatest singer/songwriters and guitar innovators of the last half century.

Coyote, Hejira, Edith and the Kingpin, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, A Case of You, Trouble Child, Help Me and Gina Foster's gorgeous version of Both Sides Now - it’s through songs like these that the band explore the unique songwriting and gift of performance Joni revealed in her iconic albums Blue, Court and Spark, Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and beyond …

Drawing on their own emotional response to these songs Joni’s Soul have looked beyond merely the faithful reproduction of the Joni Mitchell songbook to shine a light on the most soulful aspects of her words and music. The band's ep release 'Shades Of Joni' passionately illustrates their well-defined and warm interpretations of some of the finest songwriting and performance in music history.

Gina Foster - vocals, Paul Stacey and Patrick Johnson (guitars), John G Smith (keyboards), Steve Pearce (bass), Richard Bailey (drums). More information here

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