Show Notes
The two guest interviews featured in Episode 7 with Bruce Hornsby and Béla Fleck were recorded back-to-back by host/producer Carmel Holt. As it turns out, the threads that connect the two artists to each other and to Joni, make the conversations a perfect pair. Joni's then-husband, Larry Klein, played bass on and co-produced several of her albums in the '80s and '90s. He would also bring the two guests in this episode closer to each other and to their shared SHERO, Joni.
Pianist and genre-blending musician Bruce Hornsby sings us through his Road to Joni, which includes Joni's first live album Miles of Aisles, a revelation that led him to devour her entire early catalogue, becoming a "complete Joni Mitchell devotee." In the 90's, Hornsby would go on to play on Shawn Colvin's second album, Fat City, produced by Larry Klein. Bruce ends by giving us a hint at a new project that he considers a "Paprika Plains"-like opus.
Banjo player and fellow breaker of genre-boundaries Béla Fleck's Road began with a birthday gift from his stepfather: a copy of Blue that he would wear out that summer. Béla recounts how "The Last Time I Saw Richard" taught him entirely new emotions as a teenager. Later on, he tells us how he, too, played on Shawn Colvin's album with Hornsby and Klein, and got to record in Joni's house. He also shares the story of a terrifying overnight hospital stay his son and family endured, where they played Night Ride Home on repeat to get them through.
More from The Road To Joni
We’ve reached the end of The Road - the one that leads our host Carmel back home and to the finale of our special 10 episode series. It is also Joni Mitchell’s 81st birthday. From Newport Folk Festival 2022 to the Hollywood Bowl on October 19, 2024, we’ve watched the remarkable comeback of our SHERO, and in the past ten weeks, we’ve heard from a group of artists who shared their roads to Joni with so much love and reverence that it was rare to end a conversation without tears.
The penultimate episode of the Road To Joni series packs in more conversations than any episode so far. As host Carmel Holt heads east toward home and the finale of the series on Joni’s 81st birthday, the throughline of “Both Sides Now” continues on with four artists whose creative path would have been very different if not for Joni Mitchell. Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath was introduced to Joni’s music at the age of 12 by her dad. They listened in the car on cassette until she knew the songs by heart. Amelia cites Joni’s freedom with her voice and her ability to talk openly about the challenges of living inside the music industry as core inspiration for her own creative journey. She tells Carmel that she thinks that the celebration of Joni should go on forever.
This week’s episode comes to you in the afterglow of two sold out Joni Mitchell performances at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, where molecules were rearranged, hearts were broken wide open and 17,000 fans basked in her brilliance. Though she has a bit of FOMO over missing out on being part of the Joni Jam, this week’s first guest, Shawn Colvin, has plenty of Joni stories. After initially discovering Clouds as a teenager at church camp, Shawn found herself many years later recording her 2nd album at Joni’s house with Joni’s then-husband Larry Klein, and Episode 7 guests Béla Fleck and Bruce Hornsby. Shawn says that she learned everything she could from Clouds, including a percussive approach to guitar, and it set her on a path to a solo approach to performing and writing songs which would not have happened without Joni Mitchell. She tells host/producer Carmel Holt about her “big brother” relationship with Bruce Hornsby and how he helped her overcome the heartbreak of a terrible New York Times live show review by sharing a folder of his own scathing media clips, one of which called him a “gherkin” (UK speak for pickle). MUNA guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and writer Naomi McPherson grew up in a family of jazz musicians. Like several of our guests, their gateway to Joni Mitchell was Blue and then the fretless bass of Jaco Pastorius on Hejira locked them in. From there, they went hardcore into 70s and onward Joni while listening to cassette tapes of Turbulent Indigo, Night Ride Home and Miles of Aisles in their 1998 Honda Accord. Naomi says that they are still learning from Joni’s music and that because of her, they play exclusively in open tunings. They talk about how Joni’s music spans genres and how much sonic exploration there is to mine in her catalog - from folk to the jazz era to 80s pop influences. Naomi thanks Joni for her fearlessness and considers her to be the greatest songwriter of all time.
For Episode 6, we continue a thread from last week as host Carmel Holt talks with three “boundary dweller” artists about their Roads To Joni. Each of our guests this week are visionaries who push beyond their comfort zone. They are producers, singers, songwriters and instrumentalists. Like Joni, they are multi-Grammy nominees and winners who do things on their own terms.
The title of this week's episode comes from a term that legendary rock photographer Norman Seeff uses to describe a truly innovative artist, one who is willing to risk sacrificing their career in order to expand beyond their creative comfort zone. He calls these people “boundary dweller artists.” Norman says that he sees Joni as the archetype of this concept. Her evolution to incorporate jazz influences in the 70s, threw some of her fans for a loop, but as we’ve heard in previous episodes, Joni was not concerned with what others think. Working with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Charles Mingus, Joni pushed her own boundaries. She pushed Norman’s boundaries, too.