Joni Mitchell

Marcus Mumford on singing 'Carey' for Joni Mitchell on the Gershwin Prize special, and why he loves her own performance on the PBS special so much.

But I think that the way she sang “Summertime” that night (in D.C.) was representative of the tone that we’ve got to hear (in her home) quite a lot. The two of us toured, just the two of us; I played accordion and mandolin and ukulele and percussion for her on the road. And it certainly felt like a sort of bit of relief in my solo set to play it. You know, her tone on some of the early stuff is so different even to her tone on, like, “Hejira,” let alone the later stuff — and I think it’s developed again. I think the first song I sang in front of her was “My Funny Valentine,” because Brandi was like, “Sing a song!,” on the spot. It seems like she’s just enjoyed having music in filling the halls of her house again, and it seems like she’s really thriving as a result of it. Then at the Gershwin honor in Washington, she sang “Summertime,” and it was amazing how good she sounded. I could never do justice to the version of the song as recorded by her or the way she sings it, but as a vibe, I felt like I could give it a go. So Newport really felt like an elaborate Joni jam, and we set up in a semi-circle like we do at the house. Can I also play in the house band?” He said, “Let me ask Greg.” And he did, and they said yes. It was just kind of that they kept kind of asking if we wanted more, and of course we did. As you watch the remainder of “Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song,” though — as it premieres on PBS tonight, and is available thereafter for streaming on PBS.org and the PBS app — you won’t see Mumford disappearing from the stage for very many extended periods.

Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Graham Nash, James Taylor and more are on hand to fete Joni Mitchell in this reverential PBS concert special.

[crystal flute](https://decider.com/2022/09/30/sunny-hostin-defends-lizzo-angry-conservatives-james-madison-flute-the-view/).) All of the performances in Gershwin Prize are great. I have worked at the direction of the The Muse. It’s powerful, beautiful, and fun, and like many of the evening’s best moments, it’s cool to see Mitchell herself in the front row, likely enjoying it the most. Mitchell has also been profiled on the long-running PBS series American Masters, and in the 2004 documentary Woman of Heart and Mind. “Joni,” Carlile says later, “sings her sorrows and paints her joy.” And she sings the title track from Mitchell’s last studio album, 2007’s Shine. The mood is deferential and joyous, in celebration not only of the 79-year-old honoree’s career, but her resilience and recovery after a 2015 brain aneurysm.

Joni Mitchell sang Gershwin. I think I heard divine intervention. The legendary singer-songwriter delivered something utterly profound during her surprise ...

Singing about all of this stuff with the intricacy and insistence of a pen scratching paper, she matches unexpected words with unexpected melodies, simultaneously possessing them in ways that feel deeply inventive and allergic to cliche. But on a Joni Mitchell album, “there” feels like “here.” The visceral experience of hearing her most vivid songs always seems to supersede the detailed stories they’re recounting. Accepting her award in a satiny frock the color of the ocean and a beret the color of gold bullion, the 79-year-old colossus of song seemed a little out of sorts. There’s a tremendous amount of movement in her music, even when the gestures feel stark and the mood feels serene. Cumulatively, this moment felt greater than life, greater than everyone in the room, maybe even greater than Joni Mitchell, unless she’s God, which I suppose is no longer out of the question. Mitchell was in Washington to accept the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and in the moment I’m describing, to headline at a tribute concert being filmed by PBS.

In this exclusive clip from the new PBS special, Mitchell sings “The Circle Game” alongside Graham Nash, Brandi Carlile, James Taylor, and more.

We had a roadmap, but with the help of our lighting designer Matt Firestone, Joni’s paintings, which are such a part of her life, became an essential part of the show. Previous recipients of the Gershwin Prize—named for the legendary songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin—include Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Bennett, Lionel Richie, and Carole King. “I was looking for a finale that would bring everyone together after Joni’s performance of ‘Summertime,’ and we had not yet put ‘Circle Game’ into the show. I wanted it to feel real as though it was truly spontaneous and fitting as an exclamation point for Joni... To mark the occasion, a star-studded concert was filmed in Washington, D.C., and will air this Friday night at 9 p.m. Earlier this month, Mitchell received the Gershwin Prize, bestowed each year by the Library of Congress in recognition of an artist’s lifetime contribution to popular music.

Canadian singer and painter Joni Mitchell continues to be one of the most influential women in music history. The folk-rock legend, who most recently was ...

Joni is currently the grandmother to Kilauren's two kids Marlin and [Toronto Globe and Mail](https://jonimitchell.com/library/originals/jmOriginal_109.pdf) article from 1998, "the experience seemed like a fairy tale" for Kilauren, but things started to get dark. Kilauren was a single mom to her son Marlin (see photo below) at the time and was struggling to figure things out. [Joni Mitchell](https://www.distractify.com/p/joni-mitchell-health) continues to be one of the most influential women in music history. Not wanting to be a father, Brad left and headed to California. [Maclean's 1997 article](https://jonimitchell.com/library/originals/jmOriginal_91.pdf), Joni got pregnant at age 21 with her now ex-boyfriend Brad MacMath.

Annie Lennox talks about singing 'Both Sides Now' on the 'Gershwin Prize' salute to Joni Mitchell, and how the legend changed her artistic life.

So Cyndi singing “Blue” from this fragility that she has, too, was so moving just because you knew that Cyndi had immersed herself in the song, and she actually interpreted it in a way that was her fragile self, coming through Joni’s song. Not to be intimidated, because as she says in the song, “You’re in my blood like holy wine; you taste so bitter and so sweet.” She’s in my blood. I just wanted to do my very best — and to work not to be intimidated, if you see what I mean. The one really sort of strong theme that was going through the whole thing, all the rehearsals backstage, here was just this feeling of joy, tremendous joy, and this connected feeling of loving Joni, just loving her, and how special it was for everybody to be part of this. I mean, to see Graham Nash singing “A Case of You” to Joni, everybody was in tears. So you get the merging of two landscapes, really — you go in and out between the two. There was a kind of purity in it, and that comes from that kind of wide-eyed, doe-y innocence that she had. And it’s so appropriate because to me, the weight of Joni’s work, it’s like Walt Whitman or something. I’m adding that on just to say: Part of you is part of me. So I came to the end, and I had no intention of singing it. So I did a lot of practicing and a lot of thinking about it every day for a long time. But she called and she had done some sort of a breakdown of it, and as soon as I got that, I knew that was it.”

The Canadian singer-songwriter rose to fame in the 1960s folk music circuit and helped define an era with hit songs such as "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock." ...

The singer described her symptoms in a 2010 [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-apr-22-3-story.html) interview. [Morgellons disease](https://www.mayoclinic.org/morgellons-disease/art-20044996) over the years. As of the time of writing, Joni seems to be in fair health. Looking back all the way to her childhood, she had a serious bout of polio that even circled back once again in her adult years. Then, at 51 years old, Joni battled post-polio syndrome when the symptoms of the condition came back again. Given that her age is advancing, some fans are concerned if the singer has any health issues to look out for.