Joni’s artful, musical world gets tribute
In her first 79 years, Joni Mitchell has done approximately everything.
She survived polio when she was young and an aneurysm when she was old. She lived in tiny towns in Canada and big cities in the U.S. She smoked, drank, partied. And she became the 13th winner of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Music; the show – 9 p.m. Friday (March 31) on PBS – highlights her as:
— A painter. “The visual side of Joni Mitchell is incredible,” said Ken Ehrlich, the show’s producer. As a backdrop to the performances (James Taylor, Lennox, Ledisi, Herbie Hancock, Brandi Carlile, more), he’s using Mitchell’s paintings; a self-portrait is shown here. “She’s a world-class artist.”
— A songwriter. This is music that “came into my soul …. It’s poetry that is embodied with music,” Lennox told the Television Critics Association. Read more…
