That’s what you call: “Surprise!” And in two ways. Joni Mitchell has performed at the traditional Newport Folk Festival. The series of concerts on the US east coast is considered a kind of Valhalla for the American singer/songwriter scene. Young Canadian Joni Mitchell made a landmark appearance here 53 years ago.
Now she’s making her first appearance in the East Coast port city in five decades. But not only the comeback at the old place of work after such a long time is remarkable. The fact that she was able to give a concert at all is remarkable.
Eventually, Mitchell suffered from a “brain aneurysm.” A kind of tumor that has made live performances impossible for them lately.
During the so-called “Joni Jam,” created and designed by songwriter Brandi Carlile, Mitchell performed 13 songs with a group of worthy musicians — indeed for the first time in 53 years.
Guitar Solo on “Just Like This Train”
She performed her performance while seated and had to concentrate very much on the singing. Only on the song “Just Like This Train” from her 1974 album Court and Spark did she venture a stand-up number to which she played guitar.
In her announcements, she described in moving words how she, the master of the strings, first had to laboriously learn the finger technique again – with tutorials, as you can find them on the video platforms.
“You have to relearn everything”
In an interview with the US TV show “CBS Mornings”, Mitchell spoke about her missing ability to play her body and stomach instrument after struggling with the tumor since 2015.
“I’m learning,” she replied to reporter Anthony Mason when asked how the gaming would go: “I look at web videos that show me where to place my fingers. Already amazing; when you have an aneurysm like that, at first you don’t even know how to sit in a chair. You no longer have a bearing to get out of bed. You have to learn everything anew; in a flashback back to childhood.”
Hard experiences for the 78-year-old. Another struggle in her struggling artist life.
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