Joni Mitchell made a surprise appearance at the end of Brandi Carlile’s concert Saturday at Los Angeles’ famed Hollywood Bowl, although perhaps it was not that much of a surprise.
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As Variety reports, the legendary singer/songwriter was the final featured performer at Carlile’s Hollywood Bowl show, dubbed “Brandi Carlile & Friends,” which also included performances by Annie Lennox, Wendy & Lisa of the late Prince’s band The Revolution, Lucius, Allison Russell, Blake Mills, and SistaStrings.
Similar to her surprise appearance with Carlile at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival and her full headlining performance this past June during Carlile’s Echoes Through the Canyon festival at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheatre—both dubbed “Joni Jams”—Mitchell’s set at the Hollywood Bowl featured her seated on a golden throne, with Carlile and the various guest artists surrounding her.
After some fun stage banter, Carlile asked Mitchell if she would sing “Shine,” the title track to Mitchell’s 2007 studio album, which Carlile said was her favorite song Mitchell had ever written.
That was followed by a duet between Lennox and Mitchell on a rendition of the title track to Joni’s classic 1969 album, Ladies of the Canyon.
For the show’s final song, Mitchell and company sang her classic 1969 song “The Circle Game,” also from Ladies of the Canyon. Carlile also asked the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday to You” to Mitchell, who will turn 80 on November 7.
Earlier in the concert, Lennox joined Carlile to sing two of her solo hits, “Why” and “No More ‘I Love You’s,” as well as the Eurythmics tune “Love Is a Stranger.”
Carlile also brought her wife, “Catherine,” to sing a duet on the Indigo Girls hit “Closer to Fine.” And shortly before Mitchell was brought out for the big finale, Carlile sang a version of her classic 1969 anthem “Woodstock.”
Carlile’s close friendship with Mitchell has been well documented, and she helped facilitate Mitchell’s 2022 Newport Folk Festival appearance, which marked Mitchell’s first full live performance since she suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015.
Carlile then helped organize Mitchell’s performance at the Echoes Through the Canyon festival, which was Joni’s first officially announced full concert in two decades.
Both events were inspired by the regular series of “Joni Jam” gatherings Mitchell has been hosting at her Los Angeles home during the last few years as she recovered from the aneurysm.
In July, a live album documenting Mitchell’s Newport Folk Festival performance, At Newport, was released. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Joni Mitchell Archives Vol 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) box set was released. The expansive collection focuses studio recordings and live performances during the period in which she recorded her albums Court and Spark, For the Roses, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
Here’s the Brandi Carlile & Friends concert set list:
- Stay Gentle
- Over the Rainbow (Wizard of Oz cover)
- The Things I Regret
- Broken Horses
- The Story
- Right on Time
- I Belong to You
- Closer to Fine – with Catherine Carlile (Indigo Girls cover)
- The Man I’ll Never Find – with Lucius
- You and Me on the Rock – with Lucius
- Requiem – with Allison Russell
- Press My Luck – with Blake Mills
- Mountains – with Wendy & Lisa
- Why – with Annie Lennox
- No More “I Love You’s” – with Annie Lennox
- Love Is a Stranger – with Annie Lennox (Eurythmics song)
- Madman Across the Water (Elton John cover)
- The Joke
- Woodstock (Joni Mitchell cover)
- SistaStrings instrumental
- Shine – with Joni Mitchell
- Ladies of the Canyon – with Annie Lennox and Joni Mitchell
- Circle Game – with Joni Mitchell
