Joni Mitchell

The musician's set at the Newport Folk festival was her first since she had a brain aneurysm in 2015.

“I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” To mark the 50th anniversary of Blue in June 2021, Mitchell shared a video thanking fans for “getting” an album that originally “fell heir to a lot of criticism” – namely that her candid lyrics were undignified oversharing. Watch videos of the performance at Pitchfork and read the setlist below.

Joni Mitchell played her first set at the Newport Folk Festival in two decades on Sunday (July 24) with help from Brandi Carlile.

The pair collaborated on Mitchell’s iconic 1969 song “Both Sides Now,” playing a hushed version of the ballad as the stage full of musicians sat in awe at the master class, with video of the performance catching country singer Wynonna dabbing away tears during the emotional performance anchored by Carlile’s bandmates, Phil and Tim Hanseroth. Rolling Stone reported that Mitchell was supported by a group that included newly solo singer Marcus Mumford, Brandi Carlile, Blake Mills, Lucius, Taylor Goldsmith, Wynonna and more as they pitched in on some of her most beloved songs. Folk icon Joni Mitchell wowed the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday (July 24) when the “Big Yellow Taxi” singer took the stage for her first full-length live set in more than 20 years.

Joni Mitchell surprised the crowd at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival with her first full set-length concert appearance in two decades.

The 78-year-old singer-songwriter has rarely appeared in public since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. The folk icon, who first performed at the festival in 1969, joined Brandi Carlile and played multiple classics such as ‘A Case of You’, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, and ‘Both Sides Now’. They were supported by a group of artists including Blake Mills, Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith, Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Wynonna Judd, and more. Joni Mitchell surprised the crowd yesterday (July 24) at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival with her first full set-length concert appearance in two decades.

JONI MITCHELL surprised music fans at Newport Folk Festival over the weekend with her first full live performance since 2002.

She released her first of these, Joni Mitchell Archives Vol 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) in October 2020. After suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015 she has occasionally made public appearances, but over the weekend gave her first full live set since 2002, 20 years ago. She last sang at the Newport folk festival in 1969.

Yesterday, however, Mitchell played a surprise 13-song set at the Newport Festival, performing alongside an all-star group of friends and collaborators. This ...

The set also featured help from people like Marcus Mumford, Wynonna Judd, Lucius, Blake Mills, and Taylor Goldsmith. Mitchell’s voice was weathered but evocative, and she also picked up a guitar to play the solo from “Just Like This Train.” There’s something terribly moving about seeing the clearly delighted 78-year-old Joni Mitchell return to performing like that. Michell’s set, called the Joni Jam, was not previously announced, and it included renditions of beloved classics like “A Case Of You,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” and “Both Sides Now,” as well as covers of some of Mitchell’s favorite oldies. Mitchell sang while seated on a sort of throne, and she often shared lead vocals with her friend Brandi Carlile, a prominent Mitchell admirer who has covered Mitchell’s Blue album onstage more than once.

Joni Mitchell sang for the better part of a set for the first time in 22 years, with "jammers" Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford and Celisse.

Wrote NPR’s Ann Powers after attending the Newport “jam,” describing Mitchell’s current strength of voice and register: “When she turned to the Gershwin classic ‘Summertime’ – according to some insiders, one of the first songs she took up as she recovered from her illness – Mitchell sounded a bit like Nina Simone, or like her longtime hero Annie Ross in Robert Altman’s ‘Short Cuts.’ This wasn’t the first new Joni to emerge in the 21st century. “This scene shall be forever known henceforth as the Joni jam!” Carlile said at the outset. Some of the celebrity guests at Joni Mitchell’s private hootenannies have sworn that she has been an enthusiastic participant in the living room sessions in her Santa Barbara-area home.

Brandi Carlile and Friends were joined by Joni Mitchell for a surprise set during Newport Folk Festival. She performed 13 songs.

Mitchell first made a return to the stage in April for her tribute at MusiCares Foundation's annual pre-Grammys event. "What would make her proud? It is also a major feat years after a brain aneurysm temporarily left her unable to walk or talk.

In 2015, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm that forced her to relearn how to play the guitar. Sunday's surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival ...

"You're going back to infancy almost. "I knew she'd do it at Newport," Carlile said. Sunday's surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival left many in tears.

The legendary artist first performed at the Rhode Island festival 55 years ago when she was still an up-and-comer in the folk scene.

Mitchell closed the set out with “The Circle Game,” which she also performed at her first-ever Newport show. Not only did Mitchell’s performance reflect how far she’s come in her recovery as a vocalist, it reflected her healing as an individual. Carlile and other top-shelf folk and rock artists were known to join Mitchell in her Los Angeles apartment while she recovered, sharing round-table music sessions and intimate conversation that Carlile christened “the Joni jam.”

Joni Mitchell has kept a low profile since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. She joined Brandi Carlile for classics like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides ...

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Joni Mitchell described her surprise Newport Folk Festival gig over the weekend, saying she wasn't nervous and thought it went off well.

I pictured the water and the fort and the boats.” “I think having a brush with death like that kind of softens people towards me!” Mitchell said with a laugh. It’s amazing what an aneurysm knocks out – how to get out of chair! Her first visit back to Newport in over five decades found Mitchell playing guitar, something she wasn’t able to do again until fairly recently due to her health issues. Joni Mitchell has been a performer for nearly six decades, so at this point it’s safe to assume that she doesn’t get super nervous on stage, even during her first full-length live set in more than 20 years. “But I want it to be good.

Mitchell performed with the help of 'Brandi Carlile and Friends,' singing and playing guitar on such classics as 'Both Sides Now' and 'The Circle Game.'

Yet Sunday’s show, which also featured renditions of “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and “Love Potion No. 9,” offered a more thorough overview of a career that’s influenced countless musicians over the past half-century. It was also, according to reports, her first time performing at length anywhere since the early 2000s. Mitchell, 78, sang and played guitar with accompaniment from a group of friends and admirers led by Brandi Carlile, who’s covered Mitchell’s classic “Blue” album in concert and who helped spearhead April’s MusiCares Person of the Year tribute to Mitchell. The Newport performance, which wasn’t announced in advance, was billed as Brandi Carlile and Friends; other musicians taking part included Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford, Blake Mills, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius. Mitchell’s set included songs such as “Carey,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Help Me,” “Both Sides Now” and “The Circle Game.” (Watch clips here, here and here.)

Seeing Joni Mitchell perform these days is a rarity, but this weekend she made it happen when she joined Brandi Carlile on stage in Rhode Island.

, one that required rehabilitation and physical therapy to recover. "I wanted to be good, and I wasn't sure that I could be," Mitchell told CBS Mitchell made a surprising return to the stage Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival, an annual folk music festival in Newport, Rhode Island. The iconic singer -- known for '70s hits like "Amelia" and "Big Yellow Taxi" -- joined Brandi Carlile on stage, for a set that included "A Case of You," "Carey" and the Gershwin classic "Summertime."

Joni Mitchell sang at the Newport Folk Festival for the first time in 50 years on Sunday, and nearly a decade since her last performance.

In the middle of the world collapsing, there’s a lovely moment of art; an audience deprived of public mourning get a chance to feel connected to one another by an artist whose presence feels like a resurrection. So it’s tempting to imagine that watching Joni Mitchell in 2022 would feel like watching a time traveler sing about time traveling — “The Circle Game,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides Now.” You drag your feet to slow the circle down. So it’s just as impossible to watch Joni Mitchell performing in 2022 and not feel like that experience is also about everything else: COVID and the towering musical legends lost in the past few years, our own personal griefs, the end of Roe v. At the end of “Circle Game,” you can hear her saying, “That was so fun!” She’s smiling broadly while playing a guitar piece from Court and Spark, which is a skill Mitchell told CBS News that she forgot how to do after suffering a brain aneurysm and has had to relearn in recent years. The astounding leaps from breadth to intimacy in her work make it impossible to disentangle Mitchell’s music from everything else, from contemporary politics but also from your own breakup, your frustrations, your sense of self, your spinning awareness of getting older. It feels silly to ask why it’s overwhelming to see Joni Mitchell performing in 2022.

The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday.

She added, “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” Mitchell, never one for the limelight, has remained largely out of the public eye since having a brain aneurysm in 2015. “I will never be over this.

The legendary singer, now 78, joined Brandi Carlisle and other artists for a festival-closing "Joni Jam" that featured Mitchell's breathtaking performance ...

Beginning with an exuberant mashup of “Jungle Boogie,” “Soul Makossa,” and James Brown’s “Gimme Some More,” the “Tonight Show” house band brought a few potential firsts to the folk festival stage — possibly the tuba showcases, almost certainly the keytar solos. At Newport, “folk” music gets a generous interpretation. Carlile took the lead on “Carey”; the guitarist Celisse utterly reimagined the swooning “Help Me,” with Mumford enthusiastically attacking a set of congas. The communal aspect of folk music in all its guises is integral to the festival that the late George Wein launched more than 60 years ago. For her first Newport appearance since 1969, the ensemble played Mitchell’s most familiar songs (“Circle Game,” “Big Yellow Taxi”) and a few of her favorites (“Love Potion #9,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”). The “Joni Jams,” Brandi Carlile called them.

The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday.

She added, “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” Mitchell, never one for the limelight, has remained largely out of the public eye since having a brain aneurysm in 2015. “I will never be over this.

NEWPORT, RI -- Surprise! Joni Mitchell is back onstage. The folk legend performed her first full-length concert on Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival in ...

After their rendition of “Both Sides Now,” Carlile was fighting back tears. Mitchell has contended with health complications since suffering an aneurysm in 2015, and her last full show was in late 2002, according to reports. The ensemble played Mitchell’s most familiar songs (“Circle Game,” “Big Yellow Taxi”) and a few of her favorites (“Love Potion No. 9,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”).

Joni Mitchell's surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival was just what we needed — a reminder that joy trumps despair every time.

It wasn’t just a testimony to those miracles that can only be achieved through both individual determination and community support; it was a reminder that there is a reason to keep hanging in there, pushing forward, seeing the bows and flows of angel hair along with the rain and snow. For those who had begun to wonder, with troubling regularity, if it is possible for American culture to recover from its wounds, self-inflicted and otherwise — or, even more tragically, if there is even a reason to try — Mitchell’s performance was a brief glimpse of possibility. But it wasn’t just the wondrous and wholly unexpected sight and sound of this Canadian-born American master live that caused throats around the world to catch. Mitchell delivered the song’s conclusion — “I really don’t know life at all” — not in bewilderment or wistful regret but with amused surrender and a glint of delight. “They could never cage or categorize her,” said one of my friends, who has long worshiped Mitchell. “Each of her works is like a little jewel in how it tells its story, and then there is that beautiful unquenchable voice.” There at the behest of Brandi Carlile, Mitchell, 78, who has spent years recovering from a brain aneurysm, sang, played guitar and proved there is a reason for social media to exist.

Joni Mitchell surprised fans on Sunday when she performed a few of her classic songs at Rhode Island's Newport Folk Festival.

“Well, you know, when I first started writing less from fantasy,” Mitchell told Davis at the time, according to Variety. “When I started scraping my own soul more and getting more humanity in it, it scared the singer-songwriters around me. The men seemed (to) be nervous about it, almost like Dylan plugging in and going electric. Mitchell also crooned along to “Both Sides Now,” with Judd seated behind her.

The last time this artist took the Newport stage was 1969. Heck, her last full concert anywhere was in the year 2000. So yesterday, when folk star Brandi ...

And the painted ponies go up and down. JONI MITCHELL AND BRANDI CARLILE: (Singing) And the seasons, they go round and round. So that moment during the song "Just Like This Train" from her album "Court And Spark" - wow.

Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell stole the show with a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on Sunday, playing her first ...

“Joni’s looked at life from so many sides and she came out of the storm singing like a prophet,” Carlile wrote on Twitter after the show. In January, Mitchell demanded her work be removed from music-streaming service Spotify in protest of coronavirus misinformation she said was being featured there. Mitchell told CBS she taught herself to play again after the aneurysm.

For the first time since 2000, folk legend Joni Mitchell took to the stage with some friends, to the delight of fans at the Newport Folk Festival.

And the painted ponies go up and down. JONI MITCHELL AND BRANDI CARLILE: (Singing) And the seasons, they go round and round. So that moment during the song "Just Like This Train" from her album "Court And Spark" - wow.

NEWPORT, RI (AP) - Surprise! Joni Mitchell is back onstage. The folk legend performed her first full-length concert on Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival ...

After their rendition of “Both Sides Now,” Carlile was fighting back tears. Mitchell has contended with health complications since suffering an aneurysm in 2015, and her last full show was in late 2002, according to reports. Seated in a wingback chair and wearing a blue beret and sunglasses, Mitchell joined festival headliner Brandi Carlile and a bevy of other artists, including Wynonna Judd, Allison Russell and Marcus Mumford. It was Mitchell's first Newport festival performance since 1969.

At the Newport Folk festival this weekend, the 78-year-old Canadian musician joined younger peers such as Brandi Carlile and Wynonna Judd to perform some of her ...

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The iconic singer-songwriter wasn't able to walk or talk after a brain aneurysm in 2015. Dr. Anthony Wang, a neurosurgeon, explains the challenges she faced ...

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