NEW YORK (AP) -- A few years ago, Joni Mitchell had rejected her musical muse, refusing to write or even play music as she devoted her life to painting, watching old movies on TV and reconnecting to the daughter she had given up for adoption in 1965.
Now, at age 63, newly inspired by family, nature and anger at today's politics, Mitchell is enjoying an outburst of creativity. The iconic Canadian singer-songwriter, whose poetic verses on songs like “Both Sides, Now" have inspired countless musicians from Madonna to Wayne Shorter, has released “Shine," her first album of new songs in nearly a decade.
On Sept. 25, Mitchell returned to the public eye as Starbucks' Hear Music label played her new 10-song album in 6,500 coffee houses. Later that evening, Mitchell found herself at the Manhattan premiere of the film “The Fiddle and the Drum" (scheduled for Oct. 22 broadcast on Bravo), an anti-war ballet based on her songs that she co-created with choreographer Jean Grand-Maitre of the Alberta Ballet.
She then rushed to the gallery opening of an exhibition, entitled “Green Flag Song," of her triptychs. Focused on the themes “war, torture, revolution," they were created from ghostly green-and-white negative images photographed off her dying TV set from the History Channel, CNN and Turner Classic Movies.
The next day, an ebullient Mitchell met up with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, who shares her beliefs in Buddhism and bending music genres, for a free-flowing discussion over lunch with several writers. Hancock had just released “River: The Joni Letters," interpreting her songs through his jazz prism with the help of Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Tina Turner and Mitchell herself.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer says it wasn't difficult to put aside music for most of the past decade. She had her painting, which she could pursue without worrying about bean-counting record company executives trying to mold her image.
“I was a painter first, but I got waylaid by the music -- first as a hobby to make my smokes at art school," said Mitchell, speaking in a slightly husky voice as she chain-smoked American Spirit cigarettes, a habit she developed at age 9 after nearly dying from polio.
“At the time, I just sang folk songs but then a tragedy occurred in my life. I had a daughter and I gave her up and that puts a big hole in a woman that's hard to explain. I was destitute ... and three years later I had a career and money," said Mitchell, whose first album, “Song to a Seagull," came out in 1968. “But I didn't like fame. ... I understood the price of it at an early age."
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Now, at age 63, newly inspired by family, nature and anger at today's politics, Mitchell is enjoying an outburst of creativity. The iconic Canadian singer-songwriter, whose poetic verses on songs like “Both Sides, Now" have inspired countless musicians from Madonna to Wayne Shorter, has released “Shine," her first album of new songs in nearly a decade.
On Sept. 25, Mitchell returned to the public eye as Starbucks' Hear Music label played her new 10-song album in 6,500 coffee houses. Later that evening, Mitchell found herself at the Manhattan premiere of the film “The Fiddle and the Drum" (scheduled for Oct. 22 broadcast on Bravo), an anti-war ballet based on her songs that she co-created with choreographer Jean Grand-Maitre of the Alberta Ballet.
She then rushed to the gallery opening of an exhibition, entitled “Green Flag Song," of her triptychs. Focused on the themes “war, torture, revolution," they were created from ghostly green-and-white negative images photographed off her dying TV set from the History Channel, CNN and Turner Classic Movies.
The next day, an ebullient Mitchell met up with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, who shares her beliefs in Buddhism and bending music genres, for a free-flowing discussion over lunch with several writers. Hancock had just released “River: The Joni Letters," interpreting her songs through his jazz prism with the help of Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Tina Turner and Mitchell herself.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer says it wasn't difficult to put aside music for most of the past decade. She had her painting, which she could pursue without worrying about bean-counting record company executives trying to mold her image.
“I was a painter first, but I got waylaid by the music -- first as a hobby to make my smokes at art school," said Mitchell, speaking in a slightly husky voice as she chain-smoked American Spirit cigarettes, a habit she developed at age 9 after nearly dying from polio.
“At the time, I just sang folk songs but then a tragedy occurred in my life. I had a daughter and I gave her up and that puts a big hole in a woman that's hard to explain. I was destitute ... and three years later I had a career and money," said Mitchell, whose first album, “Song to a Seagull," came out in 1968. “But I didn't like fame. ... I understood the price of it at an early age."
Continue...
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