From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #800 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe:mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Wednesday, June 19 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 800 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Joni Mitchell sings ... ["Susan E. McNamara" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:23:44 +0000 From: "Susan E. McNamara" Subject: Joni Mitchell sings ... I pulled into my driveway about a half an hour ago, and just finished catching up on the posts ... the whole time I was in Toronto I had to put my phone on airplane mode so Verizon didn't empty my checking account! so most of the time I was incommunicado. I had 8th row center seats for the NYTimes Talk on Sunday and felt like I was sitting right in front of Joni in her living room. I can't control my emotions when I see this woman. As soon as she walked onto stage I started weeping. She was amazing and would have talked about 3 hours if Jon Pareles would have let her. I'm sure most of you have already seen the video so I won't say much about that. All I will say is I loved the discussion of Paprika Plains ... wow! I stayed with my long time guitar page buddy Pat Hillis and Anne Madden, who live very close to downtown Toronto. As always with the friends I meet on the list, even though this was the first time Pat and I met face to face it was like we had known each other all our lives. On Monday we took out the guitars early and played most of the day, practicing Hejira, People's Parties and Both Sides Now for after dinner entertainment with Patty Parlette, Jody Johnson and our Toronto Ring Leader, Catherine McKay. Catherine also joined us on guitar and it was a great time. Also Anne made an amazing grilled steak dinner which was out of this world. We met for dinner on Tuesday before the show with a great group of JMDLers, most of whom I met for the first time, John and Rich, Lu and Bill in from Indianapolis, and Michael and Rene, who I walked to Massey Hall with. I had a seat in what seemed like the corporate section to the right of the stage, 8th row (lots of fogey financiers and jewelry!). Lizz Wright came out first and sang Fiddle and the Drum. I immediately fell in love with this woman, her face was so beautiful, like a Madonna, and her voice was so silky. She was really my favorite tribute performer and her song choices were inspired. Her performance of The Wolf That Lives in Lindsay was so moody. I'm pretty sure Brian Blade was playing the original eerie wolf howl tracks from Joni's version on Mingus. The atmosphere created by the band was all consuming. She also seduced us with emotional versions of Shades of Scarlett Conquering and Jericho. Love! Other tributer highlights were Glenn Hansard reprising his Boho Dance and Shadows and Light from the LA Jazz tribute. He also opened with Coyote, and then played Carey with Liam Titcomb. Liam Titcomb also performed IF, which I thought was a great choice and from personal experience, it's a REALLY difficult song to sing. Again the Brian Blade arrangement was incredible and Liam did a great job. I also enjoyed Cold Specks version of Black Crow. Kathleen Edwards was a little disappointing but I kept recalling how incredibly atrocious Aimee Mann was at the LA show and gave Kathleen some slack. She sang Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire great, and also performed You Turn Me On I'm a Radio, but I have no idea why she brought her guitar with her on stage. Marvin Sewell was masterful on acoustic guitar sitting almost hidden behind the performers, but I got a good look at his guitar during all the performances and he was using Joni's open tunings with his own flourish and there was really no need for anyone else to use an acoustic on stage (except for maybe Glenn Hansard). I was kind of annoyed by her version of Big Yellow Taxi, the crowd was only half into the sing a long camp fire stuff. I was kinda bored with that. Rufus Wainwright was the sparkle in the show for me. He had some great song choices, too. All I Want, another great arrangement by Brian Blade, was really fun. I also enjoyed his lead on Free Man In Paris, with Liam and Kathleen on background vocals. He called his version of Slouching Toward Bethlehem a Scottish ballad, and I found it a very moving performance. But then there was A Case of You, another highlight of the night. His singing style was an acquired taste for me, but this performance sold me that he is a knock-out performer. Then herself came on stage. I can't say enough how completely joyous Joni was both times I saw her this week. She waved at the crowd and talked back when people spoke to her from the audience. Then she kicked off her shoes and got to work! I'm so happy Catherine posted her video of This Rain, so you can see and hear how powerful it was. Joni talked a lot this week about Emily Carr, who she was and why she inspires Joni. I have to find out more ... she sounds like another creative force ... a friend of spirit. So Joni had warned the audience several times that it wasn't likely she would be able to sing. So she started to tell yet another story (many stories this week, I can't wait for the memoirs!) about how she joined the Rolling Thunder tour and for fun she would mess with the cops in each town she went to. She would flirt with them to get their badges ... but when she was in Memphis she tried to flirt a badge out of this one very serious cop (he had photographed MLKs assassination) and as a consolation prize he drove her in a limousine down Beale Street and over to Furry Lewis' house. Then the band started the intro to Furry Sings The Blues. She spoke the first few words but then broke into song, and the audience exploded!! I held my face while the tears just started pouring out of my eyes and my chest was heaving. I had never experienced such emotion in a theatrical experience before. It was truly historic. She sang the song masterfully ... it was tremendous. after she finished, she said, now here's my feminist song or so they say (I'm paraphrasing as I remember it if anyone wants to correct me) ... and she started performing Don't Interrupt the Sorrow! OMG, how was I still alive? Mind blowing ... to be in the room while my hero performs one of the most important songs in my life experience ... when Joni said earlier in the week that you get her when you see yourself in her songs, this was the song that always did this for me. OMG, why haven't I fainted yet? She brought back the whole cast to sing Woodstock, another great arrangement by Brian Blade. Can I say that Brian Blade and the band were magnificent. I loved Melvin Butler's sax solo at the end and Joni even helped out during what we called the hyudahs, although you could tell that scat is hard for her now. No regrets Joni, you are and always will be the most magnificent composer, singer, musician and artist I've had the privilege to see and hear in my lifetime. More in my next post about the after party. Susan McNamara email: sem8@cornell.edu ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #800 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. 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