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Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

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Joni Mitchell Starring at Troubadour

Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Van Nuys Valley News, 24 January 1969

THE CROWD was larger, more expectant this time, as they waited for Joni Mitchell to mount the Troubadour stage Tuesday night and begin her return ...

Joni Mitchell: The Renaissance Woman

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 11 February 2007

At last the times have caught up with Joni Mitchell – musician, artist and now inspiration for a ballet ...

Audio interviews

Joni Mitchell (1983)

Interview by Dave Zimmer, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1983

Joni talks about the Canyon scene: the people, her house, what it was like; she talks about playing the coffee house circuit in New York, and meeting David Crosby; leaving New York for Los Angeles; Crosby producing her first album; meeting the foppishly dressed Graham Nash; and Crosby, Stills & Nash getting together; she then talks about not getting to Woodstock, and subsequently writing the song.

File format: mp3; file size: 26.8mb; Interview length: 27' 54"; sound quality: **

Joni Mitchell (1994)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 September 1994

The First Lady of the Canyon looks at her past and present, from her Canadian youth through the Canyon days, the nightmare of the '80s and to her place in 1994. Songs, places, lovers, friends, gender and politics. Oh, and Bob Dylan's bad breath.

File format: mp3; file size: 116.9mb, total interview length: 2h 1' 46" sound quality: ***

Joni Mitchell (1998)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1998

Shortly after participating in the Woodstock "Day in the Garden" concert, Joni talks about missing the original festival; not really joining in with youth culture; her youthful tangle with polio; starting smoking at nine; her musical adventures; her Canadian bolthole; her dislike of the music business; her new album Taming the Tiger; her guitars and tunings; finding Jaco Pastorius; becoming a painter... and being reunited with her daughter.

File format: mp3; file size: 126.2mb, interview length: 2h 11' 26" sound quality: ***

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Tom Rush Tells Why He's Now Electrified!

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 11 November 1966

ONCE UPON a time folk singers looked at electric guitars and top 40 radio in horror. Then several years back the big hero of the ...

Joni Mitchell: the Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 1968

Canadian Singer in U.S. Debut ...

Joni Mitchell: Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Van Nuys Valley News, 7 June 1968

Joni Mitchell Sings Own Songs In Debut At Troubadour Nitery ...

Jerry Jeff Walker, Joni Mitchell: Singer-Songwriters Are Making a Comeback

Profile by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 5 July 1968

Developing Trend Indicated at the Bitter End by Jerry Walker and Joni Mitchell ...

The Groove: Albums from Joni Mitchell, Cream, the Band and more

Review by uncredited writer, TeenSet, September 1968

AT ONE point almost every creative songwriter in this country has been labeled a poet by one critic or zealous reviewer, and students of English ...

Joni, The Seagull From Saskatoon

Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 September 1968

TALKING TO Joni Mitchell about her songs is rather like talking to someone you just met about the most intimate secrets of her life. Like ...

Joni Mitchell, Al Stewart, The Johnstons: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 5 October 1968

OPENERS AT Roy Guest's "Festival of Contemporary Song" at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday, the Johnstons, finished their set with Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides ...

Top Tunes: Joni Mitchell

Interview by Michael Oberman, Evening Star, The (Washington DC), 7 December 1968

HER SONGS have been recorded by 19 many artists, but it's been only recently that Joni Mitchell has made a mark as a singer herself. ...

The Way We Are Today

Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, The Age of Rock, 1969

Joni Mitchell: Joni Mitchell (Reprise)Earth Opera: Earth Opera (Elektra) ...

Joni Mitchell: Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 17 February 1969

Joni Mitchell Does It Right ...

Joni Mitchell

Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969

FOLK MUSIC, which pushed rock and roll into the arena of the serious with protest lyrics and blendings of Dylan and the Byrds back in ...

The Johnny Cash Show (ABC TV/Screen Gems)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 June 1969

TV CASHES IN ...

Joni Mitchell: Clouds

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 24 June 1969

JONI MITCHELL has written songs for Tom Rush, and the Fairport Convention have used her songs on both their albums. ...

Joni Mitchell: Clouds (Reprise RSLP 6293)

Review by Wesley Laine, Record Mirror, 6 September 1969

Beautiful new Joni Mitchell LP – but it's an acquired taste ...

Bridget St. John: Ask Me No Questions (Dandelion 63750); Joni Mitchell: Clouds (Reprise RSLP 6341)

Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 10 October 1969

TWO BEAUTIFUL records both with an element of surprise; Joni's isn't as immediately impressive as was her first and Bridget's manages to emanate an aura ...

Joni Mitchell: My Personal Life is a Shambles

Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 10 January 1970

GENTLE, SHY Joni Mitchell flew into London last week with her friends Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to do her last concert for a long, ...

Joni Still Feels The Pull Of The Country

Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970

CANADIAN FOLK singer Joni Mitchell this week denied rumours that she would be retiring after her Royal Festival Hall concert on January 17th. ...

The Crawling Eye: Protest peace... and Joni Mitchell

Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 10 January 1970

JONI MITCHELL is ever such a nice person. ...

Joni Mitchell: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, 24 January 1970

A triumph for Joni ...

Joni Mitchell: Let's Make Life More Romantic

Profile and Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 20 June 1970

JONI MITCHELL is a poet whose time has come. Because she uses the vehicle of music, her words and thoughts reach out to countless minds. ...

Joni Mitchell

Report by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, July 1970

JONI MITCHELL is a beautiful lady, one who write and sings songs born from the depths of her experience, a word painter who shows us ...

Joni Mitchell: Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down

Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 5 September 1970

Update, 2019. LIKE SO many who were there, my sense of life's possibilities was changed forever by the Isle of Wight five-day open-air festivals created ...

The Isle of Wight Festival: Five Days That Rocked Britain

Report by Mark Plummer, Michael Watts, Chris Welch, Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970

MM's Richard Williams, Chris Welch, Michael Watts and Mark Plummer present a five-page report on an amazing weekend of music and other scenes... ...

The Isle of Wight Festival: 5 Days of Peace, Music and Love

Report by Mick Farren, uncredited writer, International Times, 10 September 1970

2011 note: this report on the 1970 IoW festival is led off by Mick Farren but includes contributions by other, unnamed IT writers. The title ...

Joni Mitchell: Glimpses of Joni

Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 19 September 1970

SCENE IN A television studio: a girl in a long pink shift, which catches at her ankles when she walks, picks hesitantly at a few ...

Joni Mitchell in with James

Report by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 31 October 1970

JONI MITCHELL flew into London last Sunday – with James Taylor the man with whom she is being romantically linked. ...

Joni Mitchell: Joni Takes a Break

Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1971

CANADIANS are stunned by the vague, awesome level that Joni Mitchell has reached. She was the least-known of the Toronto group of folksingers of the ...

Joni Mitchell, James Taylor et al: The Pop Aristocrats

Overview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 20 March 1971

There's a new pop elite in America today, a closely-knit group of singers and musicians who have taken the music scene by storm. The members ...

Joni Mitchell: Blue/Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 29 June 1971

JONI MITCHELL'S new album, Blue, is about to be released here by Warner Brothers (K 44128). A large proportion of Joni's most notable songs, to date, ...

Joni and the Laurel Canyon Mob

Comment by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 18 September 1971

SO YOU wanna be a rock and roll star, right? Well, our advice is to head out Laurel Canyon way. Take a tip from one ...

Joni Mitchell: Royal Festival Hall, London,

Live Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 13 May 1972

Saturday night was Cup Final day in London and – in passing – the last time the crowd joined for ‘Abide With Me’ at Wembley. ...

Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 1)

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 3 June 1972

THE LADY WHO walks on eggs is sitting in her hotel suite overlooking St. James' Park with her legs tucked up, her chin resting on ...

Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 2)

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 10 June 1972

LAST WEEK Joni Mitchell spoke for the first time in over two years about why she virtually "retired" from the music scene during a period ...

This is David Geffen, by Gentlemen's Agreement Manager to the Superstars

Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 July 1972

Will CSN&Y ever re-unite and find true happiness? ...

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 9 December 1972

MORE SONGS OF transient euphoria and stabbing loss, played out against an ambiguous background of relentless fatalism and constant hope, mingled in approximately equal proportions, ...

Joni Mitchell: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 9 December 1972

Steve Rosen reports from the West Coast ...

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 16 December 1972

IN A VAST, empty, wild beach a blonde girl sits in the breakers and watches the sea rolling endlessly into the sand. There are seagulls ...

Joni Mitchell: A Tender Dignity

Guide by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 January 1973

ONE DAY, many years ago, Al Kooper went home with a blonde Canadian chick who used to hang out with the Blues Project. In the ...

The Voice of Woman: Joni Mitchell

Comment by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 17 February 1973

I am on a lonely road and I am travellingLooking for the key to set me free . . . ...

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, March 1973

THIS IS ONE of those albums which makes me feel I should apologise to the artist concerned for previously undervaluing her work. Even as late ...

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)

Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 6 January 1974

Joni's Songs Are For Everyone  ...

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)

Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 26 January 1974

OF ALL THE female writers and singers post-dating Joan Baez in pop music, Joni Mitchell seems to me to have arrived at the most complete ...

Joni Mitchell and Tom Scott: Lost Innocence with a Rock and Roll Band

Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 9 February 1974

JONI MITCHELL, no longer an innocent folkie, has turned her back on the garden for rockier pastures. Yep the times certainly are changing. ...

Joni Mitchell: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 9 February 1974

Folk‐Rock's Ethel Merman ...

Albums from Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell et al

Review by j. poet, The Berkeley Barb, 22 February 1974

j poet advertizes fer joni: male groopie wanted ...

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)

Review by Bruce Malamut, Crawdaddy!, April 1974

Red Roses for a Blue Canyon Lady ...

Joni Mitchell, Tom Scott & the L.A. Express: New Victoria Theatre, London

Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 27 April 1974

THE divine Miss M ...

Joni Mitchell: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee

Live Review by Steven X Rea, Phonograph Record, May 1974

JONI MITCHELL has finally accepted stardom and all the craziness that goes with it. During her Memphis appearance she still revealed her female submissiveness on ...

Tom Scott: Great Scott!

Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 4 May 1974

Michael Watts talks to the men who put jazz into Joni. ...

Joni Mitchell: New Victoria, London

Live Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1974

WHEN JONI MITCHELL sang in a cinema next to Victoria Station, her entire audience fell in love with her three nights running. For weeks afterwards ...

Joni Mitchell: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, August 1974

Big time now ...

Tom Scott: Joni's Spark

Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 1 August 1974

LOS ANGELES – Mention the name Tom Scott in jazz circles and recognition is immediate: The 25-year-old horn-playing prodigy from Southern California is well known ...

Joni Mitchell: Wembley Stadium, London

Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 21 September 1974

IN CONCERT, Joni Mitchell is one of those rare performers whose sophisticated charisma and fairy-tale personality reach the inner emotions of her audience. ...

Joni Mitchell: Miles Of Aisles

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, January 1975

THE TWO MOST annoying things (to me) about Joni Mitchell in the early years of her career were her songs, which often seemed impersonal, shallow ...

Joni Mitchell

Essay by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975

Question: what well-known biped possesses an upper-register vocalic system, is pleasant to look upon, and is almost universally misunderstood and/or patronised? Answer: any Rock 'n ...

Joni Mitchell: Miles of Aisles (Asylum)

Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1975

"JONI, YOU'VE GOT more class than Mick Jagger, Richard Nixon or Gomer Pyle combined," a male Joni junkie interjects after ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet ...

Joni Mitchell: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 29 November 1975

ON THE INSIDE sleeve of this album, Joni has a short, cryptic liner note stating that the record is "graphically, musically, lyrically and accidentally" a ...

Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, Joni Mitchell: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975

Dylan's damp squib ...

Joni Mitchell: Hostess Twinkies for Your Dreams

Live Review by Michael Gross, Swank, 1976

Joni Mitchell: Nassau Coliseum ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum K53053)

Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 27 November 1976

JONI More blues ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum K53053) *****

Review by Tim Lott, Sounds, 27 November 1976

The tip of the iceberg ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976

Joan travels on; Joni travels back ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E-1087)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, December 1976

VERY FEW of Joni Mitchell's songs since the Ladies of the Canyon LP have been recorded by other artists, and I suppose that must be ...

The Band's "Last Waltz": Winterland, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Phonograph Record, December 1976

WHEN THE announcement came, 5,000 tickets at $25 each were sold out almost immediately. This was the final show, "The Last Waltz." The Band — ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E 1087); Melanie: Photograph (Atlantic SP 18190)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, February 1977

JONI DRONES, MELANIE FINDS NEW KEY ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E-1087)

Review by Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977

Mitchell: the siren and the symbolist ...cold steel and sweet fire ...

Joni Mitchell: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Asylum)

Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 26 January 1978

Mitchell evolves ...

Joni Mitchell: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Asylum)

Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1978

DON JUAN SAYS HE DOESN'T KNOW YOU ...

Joni Mitchell Meets Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Report by Wesley Strick, Circus, 2 March 1978

NINETEEN SEVENTY EIGHT is a watershed year for Joni Mitchell; Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Asylum) is the superlative singer-songwriter's tenth album; its release marks the ...

Charles Mingus, Jazz Pioneer, Dead

Obituary by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 9 January 1979

CHARLES MINGUS, the innovative jazz composer, band leader and bassist, died Friday night in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was 56. ...

Joni Mitchell: Mingus

Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979

THE CONCEPT of Joni Mitchell singing Charles Mingus, the late and very great jazzman, is eccentric but not illogical. For her it is the culmination ...

Joni Mitchell: Mingus

Review by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 30 June 1979

IF YOU WERE to point an accusing finger at me and say I'd no qualifications to review a jazz album, I'd agree with you in ...

Joni Mitchell: Mingus

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 30 June 1979

IF INTENTION automatically equalled success then this would be one hell of an album. As it is, it's beautifully recorded, self-consciously precious, a maddeningly white ...

Joni Mitchell: Mingus (Asylum)

Review by Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone, 6 September 1979

The babe in bopperland and the great jazz composer ...

Joni Mitchell: Shadows and Light

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980

LIKE, A Rolling Stone picnic or something more in touch with these headachey contemporary days? ...

Joni Mitchell: Shadows and Light (Asylum BB704)

Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 2 November 1980

JONI'S NEW ALBUM STAYS IN SHADOWS ...

Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 27 November 1982

A YEAR before her 40th birthday, the great romantic of rock music undoes her locket once more. Three years have passed since Mingus and ...

Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast

Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 27 November 1982

I LISTEN TO Joni Mitchell's voice these days with a fleeting pang of nostalgia. Flitting from one plaintive note to another, fluttering up and down ...

Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast

Review by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 3 December 1982

JONI MITCHELL'S in love. At least she was while writing and recording Wild Things Run Fast. You can hear it in the loose and easy ...

Joni Mitchell: The Public Life of a Private Property

Profile and Interview by Michael Watts, The Sunday Times, 17 April 1983

One of the few pop singers for whom the term "artist" isn't just gross exaggeration, Joni Mitchell ends a British tour at Wembley next weekend. ...

Happy Talkin' Joni

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 22 April 1983

IT WOULD BE an exaggeration to describe Larry Klein as a hated man; but, face it, there must have been times when he has felt ...

Joni Mitchell: Wembley Arena

Live Review by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 25 April 1983

WITH JONI Mitchell, the music and the life are inseparable. As a confessional songwriter the appeal is based on identification; with those of us who ...

Joni Mitchell: Jones Beach Theater, New York

Live Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 26 July 1983

DURING THE COURSE of her unpredictable but resilient career, Joni Mitchell has been the dewy-eyed sophomore, the slit-eyed hipster, the clear-eyed visionary. Her songs of ...

Joni Mitchell: Dog Eat Dog (Geffen)

Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1985

Joni looks at dogs from both sides now: coyotes to curs to sheepskin wolves ...

Joni Mitchell: The Travailer's Tale

Review and Interview by Mick Brown, The Times, 10 November 1985

AT 41, JONI MITCHELL remains, to all appearances, very much the idealistic woman who embodied an era of pop music at its most wistfully self-absorbed ...

Dog Day Afternoon: Joni Mitchell

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986

THEY'VE ALL all been coming out of the woodwork this past year, the artists who'd never deign to speak to anyone - ole Neil, Dylan ...

Joni Mitchell: Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm

Review by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 4 April 1988

THE FIRST LINES on Joni Mitchell's new album, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, are an invitation to intimacy "I'm going to take you to ...

Joni Mitchell: Portrait of an Artist in her Prime

Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 4 April 1988

IT HAS BEEN 24 years since Joni Mitchell left Saskatoon and eventually arrived on the coffeehouse circuit in Toronto's Yorkville district. And although she has ...

Joni Mitchell: Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1988

She's danced to the beat of her own drum all the way from Laurel Canyon to uptown Los Angeles. Joni Mitchell talks about her life, ...

Joni Mitchell: Joni Rocks Again

Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Chatelaine, June 1988

JONI MITCHELL was a folk star in the '70s, ignored in the '80s when she turned to jazz. Her new album, which tackles everything from ...

Idol Talk: Joni Mitchell

Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 4 June 1988

"THE POET is the vainest of the vain, even before the ugliest of water buffalo doth he fan his tail." ...

A Joni Mitchell Interview

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 September 1990

"WHAT DO I THINK of the new Joni Mitchells?" Joni Mitchell grins, sucks appreciatively on another cigarette and thinks hard, as she often does, before ...

Joni Mitchell: Conversation with a Wandering Dreamer

Review and Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, 11 February 1991

WITHIN 60 SECONDS of setting eyes on me, Joni Mitchell has started telling me about her dreams. I am spared details, but she insists that ...

Joni Mitchell: Conversation with a wandering dreamer

Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, 11 February 1991

Joni Mitchell, artist, photographer and grande dame of rock, talks to David Sinclair. ...

Joni Mitchell: They paint paradise

Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 February 1991

Now Joni Mitchell's more at ease at her easel, reports Adam Sweeting ...

Joni Mitchell: Lookin' Good, Sister

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1991

THE HAIR still tumbles to the shoulders, sunshine blonde; the smile is as winsome as ever; the perfect bone-structure remains, well, perfect. ...

Joni Mitchell: Night Ride Home

Review by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991

IT'S HARD not to be daunted the sheer quality of Joni Mitchell's back catalogue. Her recorded output stands behind her like a set of carved ...

Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991

JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...

Joni Mitchell

Interview by Steve Matteo, CD Review, July 1991

BACK IN 1975, Rolling Stone mercilessly slammed Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns, charging the singer/songwriter with adapting styles of music – jazz and ...

Elliot Roberts (1993) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, June 1993

This is a transcript of Barney's interview with Neil Young's manager Roberts, conducted in Santa Monica in 1993 as part of the interviewer's research for ...

Joni Mitchell at Troubadours of Folk Festival: Drake Stadium, UCLA

Live Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1993

FOR HER FIRST public performance in several years, Joni Mitchell found a way to affirm her spiritual ties to the folk music community whence she ...

Joni Mitchell: Lady of the Canyon

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 31 October 1994

FOR JONI MITCHELL, fame has been a fickle lover. In the 1970s, it lavished her with sold-out tours and numerous magazine covers. She was the ...

Joni Mitchell: Our Lady of Sorrows

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, December 1994

SHE ALMOST bounds into the room, this dowager duchess of American rock, fresh from whooping it up for Mojo's photographer on the street outside manager ...

Both Sides Now: Joni Mitchell's Hits and Misses

Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, November 1996

• First-ever attempt to compile a "best of" the former Roberta Joan Anderson.• Simultaneously released albums of "hits" - songs successful either for Mitchell or ...

Joni Mitchell: Hits and Misses

Review by Susan Whitall, Houston Press, 26 December 1996

IN A POP WORLD where female musicians are designed, micromanaged and as carefully positioned in the marketplace as a new brand of air freshener, how ...

Access all areas: The Rock Muse

Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Harper's Bazaar, April 1998

Scratch an epic rock god and you'll usually find a cool, inspiring woman who supplied him with lyrics, contacts and style. Now that girl power ...

Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison at the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles

Live Review by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, July 1998

Set List Van Morrison: Sweet Thing/You Make Me Feel So Free/Burning Ground/It Once Was My Life/Cleaning Windows/Vanlose Stairway/That's Life/Days Like This/Sometimes We Cry/Moondance/This Weight/Tupelo Honey/Why ...

The Unfiltered Joni Mitchell

Interview by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, August 1998

IT'S A SATURDAY NIGHT IN Burbank, California, and perhaps 200 invited guests are sitting in a circular arrangement of plush chairs, overstuffed sofas, even cross-legged ...

Joni Mitchell: "I'd Rather Not Compromise. I'm In It For The Musical Adventure."

Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1998

BY THE time she got to Woodstock, they were 25,000 strong — and it was twenty-nine years too late. But Joni Mitchell cared not that ...

Rock 100: Joni Mitchell

Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999

I was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies – an area of extreme temperatures and mirages. When I was ...

A Crown Jewel of a Show: King Bob and Queen Joni

Essay by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 March 1999

I REALLY WOULDN'T know what to say to Bob Dylan if I bumped into him again. I suppose I could talk about our one-time mutual ...

Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now

Review by Gerrie Lim, BigO, April 2000

TO PUT IT MILDLY, the new year's most surprising new album has arrived. And it comes from Joni Mitchell, the woman who wrote Woodstock and ...

Joni Mitchell's Dull Twist On Standards

Live Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 May 2000

NOBODY SINGS Joni Mitchell like Joni Mitchell. ...

Joni Mitchell: "I'm quitting this corrupt cesspool"

Report and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 21 November 2002

Why Joni Mitchell has had it with the music business ...

Back Catalog: Joni Mitchell

Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Blender, Fall 2002

IF ANY WOMAN has kept up with the big boys (Dylan, Young and co.) in the obstacle race that is folk-based singer-songwriter rock, that woman ...

Queen Joni Approximately

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2004

Raised in Canada, Joni Mitchell found her way to California in 1968. Barney Hoskyns on the crowning of a canyon princess. ...

Joni Mitchell: How 'Free Man In Paris' came along

Interview by Johnny Black, Blender, September 2004

WHEN Joni Mitchell played the finished tapes of her 1974 album Court and Spark for her Asylum Records labelmate Bob Dylan, the venerated spokesman of ...

Andy Wickham: A House Hippie at Warner-Reprise

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

The news just came in that Wickham, the "company freak" who brought Joni Mitchell and others to the attention of Reprise boss Mo Ostin, died ...

Ostin-powered: The Mogul of Burbank

Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (4th Estate), 2005

Five adapted excerpts from Barney Hoskyns' 2005 book Hotel California that chart the rise of Warner-Reprise Records during the reign of its revered chief Mo ...

Joni Mitchell

Retrospective by Jim Irvin, The Word, March 2005

NINE WAS A memorable age for Roberta Joan Anderson. Three things occurred that year, more than 50 years ago, which affect her to this day: ...

Barney Hoskyns: Hotel California – Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons, 1967-1976

Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 13 November 2005

DOES NARCISSISM have a sound? If it does, it is surely a dulcet, soft, melodic, tender sound. The music – for narcissism is nothing if ...

Michael Walker: Laurel Canyon

Book Review by Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Review of Books, 7 May 2006

UP LAUREL CANYON Boulevard at the corner of Lookout Mountain there sits a walled-in postage stamp of lawn and trees. It's a prime slice of ...

How Joni Mitchell Got Her Groove Back

Interview by Robin Eggar, Rolling Stone (Germany), May 2007

JONI MITCHELL is lost in her own music, eyes closed, head still, an American Spirit burning between her fingers. A scarcely sipped glass of red ...

Joni Mitchell: Shine

Review by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, November 2007

JONI MITCHELL declared in 2002 that she was done with the music biz and would never, ever, make another album. I can't have been the ...

School of Rock Study Guide: Singer-Songwriters

Guide by Barney Hoskyns, iTunes, October 2008

"WHERE DO YOU have left to go but in?" It was a question posed by Joni Mitchell, the brilliant Canadian blonde who specialized in intensely ...

The Heart of Joel Bernstein

Report by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, 12 February 2010

IN 1970, 16-year-old me was following Neil Young around; learning his songs, going to his concerts (two identical sets on one night!), and counting the ...

In The Mood: The Favourite Albums Of Rush's Geddy Lee

Guide by Mick Middles, The Quietus, 29 June 2012

Mick Middles speaks to Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee about his favourite albums of all times... and finds surprises amidst the classic of the ...

Joni Mitchell Memories

Comment by Ellen Sander, Rock's Backpages, October 2012

I WAS driving Stephen Stills to a CSN recording session, it must've been 1969, and the subject of Joni Mitchell came up. ...

Henry Diltz: Caught in the Canyon

Retrospective and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 26 May 2013

He photographed the most enduring images of the '60s folk-rock stars who lived in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon. Now Henry Diltz stars in a documentary about ...

Joni Mitchell: Love Has Many Faces – A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced (Rhino)

Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015

AFTER THE SUCCESS of her 2007 war-themed ballet The Fiddle And The Drum, Joni Mitchell set herself the task of distilling her myriad writing on ...

David Yaffe: Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

Book Review by Clinton Heylin, unpublished, Fall 2017

WARREN ZEVON, a Laurel Canyon contemporary of Joni Mitchell, once wrote a song called 'Accidentally Like A Martyr'. Taking a leaf from Zevon, David Yaffe's ...

Paperback Writer

Guide by Steve Matteo, Boomer, 17 August 2018

Recent books by and about favorite boomer musicians and influencers ...

Martyn Atkins (dir.): Joni 75 – A Birthday Celebration

Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, March 2019

IT WAS A little ironic that the only live breath that Joni Mitchell exuded at her own 75th birthday celebration extinguished a single candle on ...

The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

Kind of Blue: Joni’s masterpiece track by track

Guide by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 21 June 2021

1 'All I Want' For all the rapturous words bestowed on Blue, it's rarely remarked that it starts with two bars of uncomfortable dissonance: Joni's strummed ...

"I didn't want anyone to know it was me": On being Joni Mitchell's 'Carey'

Retrospective and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 17 December 2021

For 50 years, the "mean old daddy" immortalised in one of Mitchell's best-loved songs has been an enigma. Now he tells his side of the ...

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