After an over five-minute long standing ovation and every artist that was part of Sunday’s ‘Joni Jam’ at Newport Folk Festival, I found myself standing in the field of Fort Adams State Park not wanting to leave. The festival brought a phenomenal weekend of music together, building up to the incredible crescendo of Brandi Carlile shocking the crowd with Joni Mitchell’s first full-set performance in over two decades and first appearance at the iconic folk festival since 1969.
Carlile opened her set with three songs, collaborating with Lucius on two of the songs before sharing that if it seemed like she was nervous, she was. Carlile had a surprise for the crowd of 10,000 plus people that probably nobody was prepared for. The six-time Grammy Award winner gave a moving speech to the crowd about the power that music and gathering has. The festival discourages most video recordings without permission, but I hope that someone somewhere has the beautiful words that Carlile shared leading up to the announcement that Joni Mitchell was going to take the Newport Folk Fest stage.
For years legendary stories of the informal evenings that many of music’s finest have spent playing music in the home of Joni Mitchell have been shared, and on Sunday July 24, Brandi Carlile brought Joni’s living room to the Newport stage. With 10,000 adorning music fans, the stage was set with Louis XIV-style chairs and gorgeous couches circled about for artists Phil and Tim Hanseroth and Celisse Henderson, and friends Allison Russell, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius, Blake Mills, Taylor Goldsmith, Marcus Mumford and Wynonna Judd.
“This scene shall be forever known henceforth as the Joni Jam!” Carlile exclaimed just before the now historic festival performance kicked off.
Joni Jam
The set aptly named Brandi Carlile & Friends, only to be renamed to Joni Jam, kicked off with a performance of ‘Carey’ which Mitchell took only a few solo lines in the song. However, quickly began to steal the show with an incredible guitar solo she prepared just for the festival crowd. The Joni Jam took the audience on a journey through the life and career of Joni Mitchell. They played her biggest hits – like “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Love Potion No. 9” and “Amelia,” Mitchell also told beautiful stories about her songwriting which helped make the crowd of 10,000 plus people feel somehow intimate like we were actually in the living room of a living legend.
There was a beautiful reverence for Mitchell that swept across the entire crowd almost immediately. That reverence carried throughout the full 13-song performance. As Mitchell performed ‘Both Sides Now,’ I looked around the crowd and saw dozens of people wiping back tears. It was moving. I stood alone in a crowd of 10,000 people and palpably felt my life change. That sounds dramatic. When I thought it in my head, it felt dramatic, but it felt real at the same time. When the song ended and Carlile took the mic back she said “Did the world just stop? Did everything that was wrong with it just go away? I feel like it did.” Those words from Brandi Carlile only served as validation and confirmation of the power and community that was ruminating for all that were lucky enough experience the heart of a Joni Jam were real. It was powerful. It was something I will not forget. It is what music and communities are meant to build and it was amazing to be there.
Thank you to Brandi Carlile and Newport Folk Fest for the powerfully curated weekend and an unforgettable moment and memory for festival goers and the entire music world with the beautiful return of Joni Mitchell.
