I had never flown across the U.S. to attend a concert. Last weekend, I did just that, attending Joni Mitchell’s concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Quincy, Wash., on Saturday, June 10. The 79-year-old Canadian-born singer/songwriter gave her first scheduled concert performance in 23 years.
I’ve loved Joni Mitchell’s music ever since I borrowed my Dad’s LP record of Ladies of the Canyon (1970) when I was 12. I’m the same age as that album. Throughout the decades, Joni’s songs have traveled with me in good and bad times. Her Circle Game was my Dad’s favorite song, so much so that we played it at his memorial service in 2022. I watched her 75th birthday concert on screen at the Old Greenbelt Theatre in 2018, never thinking I would ever have the opportunity to hear Joni sing.
This was no ordinary concert. Joni suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015. Emergency surgery saved her life, but she had a long recovery, relearning how to speak, walk and play the guitar. As Joni recovered, her fellow musicians began holding monthly “Joni Jams” at her home in Los Angeles, where they would play Joni’s and other songs. Washington-state native Brandi Carlile convinced Joni to make a surprise appearance onstage last July at the Newport Folk Festival.
When I heard last October that Joni would be returning again to the stage at the Gorge Amphitheatre on June 10 as part of Brandi Carlile’s Echoes Through the Canyon weekend, I knew I had to go. I even sewed a shawl of sky blue, appliqued with images inspired by Joni’s songs. I invited my friend Leslie, and on June 8, we flew from Washington Dulles to Seattle, rented a car and drove the next day to the Gorge. The amphitheater, which opened in 1986 is located 155 miles east of Seattle. The venue is built into the face of a canyon overlooking the Columbia River.
As Leslie and I drove east along I-90, we marveled at the Cascade Mountains, cloaked in fog and reminding us of a Chinese ink painting. The Cascades yielded to flat desert terrain dotted by sagebrush. We listened to Joni’s Amelia, which describes “traveling across a burning desert,” and a magpie swooped down over the car. Finally, we reached the Gorge Campground and pitched a tent near other campers. That night as I was falling asleep, I overheard our neighbors singing Joni’s A Case of You in angelic harmonies. I wondered if I had gone to heaven.
The next day Leslie and I went to a wine tasting at Cave B Winery overlooking the canyon. I was standing on the edge of a bluff and heard music echoing from the direction of the stage upriver. Suddenly, I heard voices singing. I realized that I was hearing Joni rehearsing Big Yellow Taxi. I delighted in Joni’s voice, deepened with age but clear and strong, “pouring music down the canyon.”
That evening, we waited in a line over a mile long just to enter the music venue. Brandi Carlile played the opening set. Then around 9 p.m. Joni took the stage, surrounded by a pantheon of other musicians, including Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman and Marcus Mumford. The crowd of 27,000 gave Joni a standing ovation. The ensemble launched into Big Yellow Taxi, harmonizing on its chorus, “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone/They paved paradise/Put up a parking lot.”
Joni was onstage for three hours and the ensemble performed 24 songs. Joni sang lead vocals on many songs such as Amelia and Both Sides Now. Annie Lennox performed an ethereal Ladies of the Canyon and Sarah McLachlan sang Blue. The whole crowd joined Joni in singing The Circle Game.
Two moments resonated with me. The first occurred toward the concert’s end when Joni played her electric guitar on Just Like This Train and If. I marveled that she had taught her-self to play her signature chords again by watching old videos. The second moment was when Joni and Brandi sang a duet on Shine which has the tag line, “Let your little light shine.” Brandi motioned to the audience to turn on their cell phone lights, and within seconds, the Gorge was lit up. Joni was visibly moved by the audience’s show of love, and exclaimed, “You look like a fallen constellation!”
It’s hard to put into words the feeling of love that reverberated through the Gorge that evening. It was an opportunity to say, “We love you!” and “Thank you!” to Joni Mitchell, a woman who embodies resilience and whose music has touched so many lives. I feel lucky to have made the 2,300-mile journey to see her.