Whether compared to folkies of the 1960s or contemporary artists working today, Joni Mitchell is an incomparable musician. Some of that came by chance and child misfortune. Her intricate tunings, for example, are a byproduct of a childhood bout of polio that left her unable to move her hands to fit standard tuning’s chord shapes.
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Some of that is pure Joni. Her voice, both the crystalline soprano of her early years and the smoky alto she adopted later on, carries her interesting and insightful poetry beautifully. As Bob Dylan once said, “Joni Mitchell is in her own world all by herself.”
But every so often, an artist will capture something evocative of Mitchell, as unparalleled as she might be. These contemporary songs are some of the best examples of embodying the great Joni Mitchell in lyrics, instrumentation, or vocal delivery.
“You and Me On the Rock” by Brandi Carlisle
You know that you’ve successfully embodied the spirit of Joni Mitchell when your producer tells you to change the arrangement out of fear that it’s too Joni. Such was the case for Brandi Carlisle’s Grammy Award-nominated 2022 track, “You and Me on the Rock.”
In the first few seconds, the song evokes Mitchell’s early years with its bright acoustic guitar reminiscent of “Big Yellow Taxi.” Carlisle originally co-wrote the song with Phil and Tim Hanseroth on dulcimer, which Mitchell is also famous for playing. Worried it was a little too on the nose, they changed it to the final album version. Given that Carlisle began working with Mitchell around 2018, it would make sense that her music would begin to reflect her idol.
“Broken Harvest” by Madison Cunningham
With her proficient use of non-standard guitar tuning and an agile soprano that delivers cutting lyrics in the sweetest way, we’d argue that Madison Cunningham is one of the most exciting students of the Joni Mitchell songwriting school. Like Mitchell, Cunningham is as comfortable on an electric as an acoustic.
She combines the best of the folk and indie rock worlds with her track “Broken Harvest,” which features the same kind of arpeggiating swirl that Mitchell’s fingerpicking would create. Speaking to Tidal in 2022, Cunningham said, “[Joni Mitchell] opened up a whole new world. She totally inspired the way I started to shape my own chord voicings. Her sound can’t even be approximated.”
“Extraordinary Machine” by Fiona Apple
Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple seem to share a kindred spirit. Both artists have built their entire career on doing exactly what they want to do and very little of what they don’t. They forgo what’s popular at the time to focus on what fulfills them creatively. If it sells records, great. If it doesn’t, well, they weren’t industry loyalists anyway.
“Extraordinary Machine” is the title track to Fiona Apple’s 2005 record, and we’d say it’s well-deserving of a spot on our list of contemporary songs that sound like Joni Mitchell. The track’s sparse arrangement lets Apple’s songwriting shine, resulting in a song that’s quirky, smart, unapologetic, and bold—just like Apple and Mitchell.
“The Solitude” by Bedouine
Like Brandi Carlisle, Bedouine wrote her 2021 track from Waysides, “The Solitude,” with Joni Mitchell in mind. More specifically, the L.A. folk artist said she kept revisiting a lyric in Mitchell’s love song, “My Old Man,” which Mitchell wrote about her relationship with Graham Nash. The bed’s too big, the frying pan’s too wide.
“I was so taken by that,” Bedouine said in a 2021 interview with Louisville Public Media. “Conveying a feeling by describing a change in proportions. I wanted to expand on that, and it became kind of an homage. Otherwise, it’s about the realization that I’m not impervious to codependencies or being in denial about them.”
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