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If you know me, you know that a significant chunk of my musical DNA involves the Tragically Hip, one of the single most successful acts to come out of Canada.
Being from Buffalo, their music was on constant rotation — not just in my dad’s car and our stereo but at bars and sporting games around town. I have one of their album covers tattooed on my left thigh. I’ve stopped by some of the venues they played in their early days in Toronto. And I was fortunate enough to see them on their very last tour in 2016, about a year before lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie died of brain cancer. Our family dog, Gordon, is named for him.
The Hip never really broke all that big in the U.S., which was both happenstance and purposeful. They were, in essence, Canada’s band, though anyone who lives or grew up close to the border is more likely to know their songs. Long story short: you simply can’t have a conversation about Canadian musicians without talking about the Tragically Hip.
After Downie died, whoever was running his social media account started a casual mini series in which they’d pull an album out of Downie’s personal record collection. Albums by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Joy Division, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash popped up from time to time. And recently I saw one that didn’t surprise me in the slightest: Joni Mitchell’s ‘For the Roses.’
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The exceptionally humble Gord Sinclair, bassist for the Tragically Hip since day one, was kind enough to speak with me about Joni and her influence on the band over the years. This is an interview I’ve been dreaming about for years, a real full circle moment for a music fan from Buffalo like me.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Well, if you know you know. In which I discuss the 1971 album that changed a lot of women’s lives, a lot of songwriter’s lives and probably drove a bunch of people to the bottle.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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For those of you who haven’t spent hours upon hours of your life on the official Joni Mitchell website like I have, you may not know that there is an entire section dedicated to various Joni song tabs transcribed for guitar, piano, bass and more — even dulcimer.
Those transcriptions are there thanks to the (volunteer!) work of people like Sue Tierney, who have been figuring out Joni’s songs for years and helping them to end up on the internet for all to learn from.
I recently caught up with Sue, a lifelong Joni fan naturally, to talk about how and why she got involved in this work.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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In which I trace Joni’s style evolution from Mod It Girl to Hippie Queen to Sophisticated Lounge Singer.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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The first time I met writer and author Seth Rogovoy was in the spring of 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we were both attending the grand opening weekend of the Bob Dylan Center. As luck would have it, we both separately had decided it was perfectly okay to walk to Leon Russell’s Church Studios on the outskirts of town for an event. No big deal for North-easterners like ourselves, but as it turns out, Tulsa is not the kind place in which you can walk to everything…long story short: we made the trek back together and saw some parts of Tulsa I’m not sure many others have.
Flash forward to 2024 and Seth has released a brand new book about a different musical icon, Within You, Without You: Listening to George Harrison. And guess what? There’s a Joni connection in the form of Tom Scott’s LA Express, the story of which Seth explains both in his book and in this episode of Big Yellow Podcast.
So here’s Seth and I, not wandering the streets of Tulsa but instead perusing the paths of George and Joni, who have more in common than you may think.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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To begin, my apologies for the lesser-quality audio in this episode — I was forced to use my backup recording on account of only traveling with one laptop, the one that did not have the better audio on it…
But if you can hopefully look past that, you’ll find a lovely conversation I had with David Hajdu, the acclaimed author, writer, and self-proclaimed Joni fanatic. Here we talk about Joni’s place in the West Village, his own run-in with her at a jazz club in NYC and more.
If you haven’t read David’s excellent book, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña, I’d highly recommend. Here’s a link to it.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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My guest today is someone I’ve spent time in court with several months ago.
I was with David Browne and fortunately neither one of us was in legal trouble. We were both there in a stuffy NYC criminal courtroom covering the then-ongoing trial involving Don Henley and some allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics, he for Rolling Stone and I for Ultimate Classic Rock. That case ended up being dropped…
But I digress! I actually met David in person for the first time before that at the Bitter End, one of the West Village’s few remaining music venues left over from its folk scene days. (Here is a picture of Joni playing at it in 1968.) We spoke a little bit at the time about a new book he was writing, and now here we are, discussing said book: Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital (out September 17).
David did warn me that Joni herself doesn’t play a large role in the book, but I would argue that she was still an integral figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene, even if she was only a part of it for a short time.
If you’re into music history pretty much of any kind, this will be a book you’ll want to get your hands on — excellently researched and chock full of detail.
Here’s David and I…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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I am by no means a professional guitarist — I’ve dabbled since I was a kid, but my skills don’t really stretch much beyond basic chords.
However, to speak about Joni Mitchell’s music and not acknowledge her approach to guitar playing, and more specifically her famous way of utilizing unique tunings, would be an oversight.
In today’s brief episode, I explore this topic as a novice guitarist, one who has struggled to play many of Joni’s songs thanks to their eccentric tunings.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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I first got to know Tyrell Lisson when he invited me on his own podcast, the excellently informed The Band: A History. It should go without saying that if you’re a fan of Canadian musicians — which you likely are since you’re subscribed to a program about Joni Mitchell — Tyrell’s show is definitely one you’ll want to check out.
Besides being an expert on the Band, whom Joni worked with a couple of times over the course of their respective careers, Tyrell is also a musician himself based in Toronto, making him something of a double expert.
Here’s our conversation about Joni and the Band…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Just a few months after winning her first Grammy, Joni Mitchell released 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon, which illustrated both her enchantment with her new, glamorous life in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and her mild disillusionment with her growing fame. Oh, and she’s got a new boyfriend in the mix, a one Graham Nash…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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If there’s one thing I love, it’s becoming friends with a Canadian.
I first got connected with singer-songwriter Emm Gryner when she sent me a copy of her book, The Healing Power of Singing: Raise Your Voice, Change Your Life. Over the next couple years, I got to know Emm a bit more — you might recognize her name from David Bowie’s band, which she was a part of in the 2000s, but she’s also got an incredible resume of solo material under her belt — and am so honored that she agreed to come on the show.
Here, Emm and I talk about the parallels between her own path to success in Canada and Joni’s, her singing techniques, and her experience bringing Joni’s music to the theatrical stage.
If you’d like to learn more about what Emm is up to these days, check out her website. (She’s currently working in yacht rock music!!)
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Music was not Joni’s first love. Here’s what else she took up in her early days and mostly never let go of.
Thanks for listening x
Allison
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A conversation with writer and author Annie Zaleski (Salon, The Guardian, NPR)
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On May 1, 1969, Joni Mitchell released her nearly entirely self-produced sophomore album, ‘Clouds.’ Here are the basics about it…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Like others who have been on this show so far, Paul Myers is someone I’ve never met in person, but somehow I felt a kinship with him when we spoke, perhaps because of his roots in Toronto, which I grew up right across the border from in Buffalo.
Throughout his career, Paul has done a little bit of everything: record making, writing, radio hosting, podcasting, etc. Which to me meant I needed to bring my A-game when interviewing him for this episode. Fortunately, another truth about Paul, like many Canadians I’ve known, is he is easy to get along with and felt like an old friend over Zoom despite us never meeting.
Given his musical and Canadian background, Paul was the perfect guest, and I’m still thinking about the sweet story he tells here about passing Joni-lyric love notes between himself and the woman who would ultimately become his wife.
That’s just a small snippet of our conversation. Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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If you’re part of the online Bob Dylan community — yes, that’s very much a thing and it’s made up of many wonderful people — then you likely know Laura Tenschert’s name. She’s the host of the Definitely Dylan podcast series, which she started as a radio program several years ago. Laura is also, as it turns out, a fellow Joni fan, whose music she fell in love with before Dylan’s.
The history between Dylan and Joni stretches back decades and displays…the spectrum of artistic connection. Competition, camaraderie, complaining, compliments. Here, Laura and I dive into this history and attempt to make a bit of sense of the relationship between two of the most prolific and influential creators of all time.
You can also follow Laura on Twitter and Instagram!
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Joni Mitchell released her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in March of 1968. Here are the basics about it…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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When I first started dabbling in music journalism, more or less all of the writers I was familiar with were men. It took several years of exploration, work, and research to learn of more women in my field, and one of those people was Ann Powers, whom I’ve admired and looked up to since.
Like some of my other guests, Ann and I have never met, but it seemed like fate that she happened to be releasing a book about Joni Mitchell the same year I was launching a podcast about her. That book, Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell, is of course the subject of this episode. It’s an illuminating read — insightful, honest, personal at points — and offers a different kind of “music biography” experience, in my opinion.
But I’ll let Ann and I’s chat fill you in on that…here’s a link to the book for those who are interested: Traveling.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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Back in 2019, my boyfriend at the time gifted me a copy of David Yaffe’s ‘Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell,’ the first book I’d ever read about her.
When I finished that book, a fascinating and much more up close look at Joni than I had previously encountered, I wrote to David to express my thoughts. We’ve been friends since, have eaten meals in the West Village with fellow writers, run into one another at Elvis Costello shows, etc. Now, I’m pleased to have him as a guest on Big Yellow Podcast.
David’s experience interviewing Joni over the course of several years – as you’ll hear him describe in this episode – was not always stress-free. There was bumpy road on both sides, but really, what would a book about an artist like Joni be without that?
I recommend David’s book because it sees Joni talking about periods of her life during a period of her life that was both an ending and a beginning — there was still miles of ground to cover as far as Joni looking backward on her own terms. It was around this time that Joni’s “legacy” really started to solidify.
But here are David’s words.
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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In which Joni travels from Calgary to Toronto, writing one of her first original songs along the way, and finds herself pregnant and alone at 21 years old.
In which Joni also gets married, puts her daughter up for adoption and moves to Detroit, gets divorced and moves again to New York City, where her music starts to catch the attention of fellow folksingers.
And in which Joni meets a one David Crosby in Florida and travels with him to Los Angeles…
Thanks for listening x
* Allison
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