Joni Mitchell Seagall

“Angels of Newport, let’s make history together,” [Brandi Carlile] said with growing emotion. “Hold nothing back in this moment and please welcome back to the Newport stage for the first time since 1969…. Joni Mitchell!” Mitchell emerged from the side of the stage, swaying smoothly, in fine summer-style with beret and sunglasses. Her good-natured mood instantly set the tone. This performance would be an intimate gathering of friends, not unlike the Joni Jams she’d been hosting in her own living room over the last few years of recovery. Smiling broadly, Mitchell took her on-stage seat alongside Carlile and began the extraordinary performance that was on nobody’s bingo card. Within minutes, the news had rocketed around the globe. Mitchell was back, sparkling with enthusiasm, delivering a tender and passionate set of 13 songs, ending with a joyful sing-along of “The Circle Game.”

Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years 1963-1967 fills in an important chapter that heretofore has gone undocumented through in her official discography: her formative years as a folkie, playing intimate venues and radio stations while recording the occasional demo or gift tape at home…

DELIGHTFUL TRIPLE-DISC SET OF THE FINEST LIVE PERFORMANCES IN EXISTENCE Perhaps the most enduring, popular and skilled female singer and composer of the rock-age, Joni Mitchell s body of work across the forty years she has released music her last album was released in 2007, since when she has sadly suffered major health issues has no equal. In celebration of this extraordinary performer and composer s work, comes this delightful triple CD set which features some of her rarest and most sought after live broadcast recordings in existence.

After the expanded instrumental scale and sonic experimentation of Court & Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell reverses that flow for the more intimate, interior music on Hejira, which retracts the arranging style to focus on Mitchell's distinctive acoustic guitar and piano, and the brilliant, lyrical bass fantasias of fretless bass innovator Jaco Pastorius. Known for his furious, sometimes rococo figures beneath the music of Weather Report, Pastorius is tamed by Mitchell's cooler, more deliberate ballads: these meditations coax a far gentler, subdued lyricism from Pastorius, whose intricate bass counterpoints Mitchell's coolly elegant singing, especially on the sublime "Amelia," which transforms the mystery of Amelia Earheart into a parable of both feminism and romantic self-discovery. This isn't Mitchell at her most obviously ambitious, yet the depth of feeling, poetic reach, and musical confidence make this among the finest works in a very fine canon.