by Tom Bauer
Joni Mitchell Performs Surprise Show at Newport Folk Festival: The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday. —The New York Times, July 25, 2022
Joni at the Newport Folk Fest sings "Both
Sides Now." Anyone else remember that one?
Is that the first time you saw her face? The
album with her face on it? Was that the song
you first heard by her? Your first impression?
How a voice splits and changes over years,
through all kinds of stages, shaped by time
and keeping time. It can be a long long way
to go to recognize a lilt that’s aged in
a paint box of mellow feelings and thoughtful
remonstrances, lilts, dances. So like a book
that opens, one each side, beginning to end,
making her way, flitting along, hearing
her turn the words one chapter at a time.
Tom Bauer's an old coot who lives in Montreal and plays a lot of board games.