Joni Mitchell to play first headline show in decades with Brandi Carlile in 2023

Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is set to play her first headline show in 23 years at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheatre next June, according to her friend Brandi Carlile.

Speaking on The Daily Show, Carlile told host Trevor Noah earlier this week that she would play her own concert at Gorge Amphitheatre in June 2023 and that Mitchell was set to headline the following night, on June 10. The statement was later confirmed by the singer's management on Instagram.

"Joni Mitchell is going to play," Carlile announced. "No one's been able to buy a ticket to see Joni Mitchell play in 20 years … So this is enormous … and she is going to crush it!"

 

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The two-night event is called Echoes Through The Canyon. Also known as Joni Jam II, it succeeds the first official Joni Jam in July 2022, when the singer made a surprise appearance as part of the Newport Folk Festival alongside Brandi Carlile. According to Carlile, Mitchell later expressed a desire to play live again, saying, "I want to do another show … I want to play again".

Joni Mitchell performed her last proper headline shows during her 2000 Both Sides Now tour of America, and has played a number of surprise performances since then. She has been hosting Joni Jams with fellow musicians at her own house after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015, which impaired her speech and ability to walk.

"I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with," the singer told The Guardian in 2020, adding that her Irish blood keeps her going. "But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood!," Mitchell said, whose 1971 album Blue is frequently cited as one of the best albums of all time.

The singer-songwriter took to the stage for the first time since her health scare at a tribute concert celebrating her 75th birthday in 2018. JONI 75: A Birthday Celebration took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and featured a wide array of artists performing some of Mitchell's most-beloved songs in her honour. A live tribute album to Joni Mitchell was later released by Decca Records on March 8, 2019.

The singer-songwriter has since been made MusiCares’ Person of the Year at the Grammys, receiving the award for Best Historical Album for Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) at the 2022 ceremony, and been presented with an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Grammy Award winner James Taylor hinted in a 2020 interview with The Guardian that a new Joni Mitchell album may be in the works.

Watch Joni Mitchell perform 'Both Sides Now' with Brandi Carlile live at Newport Folk Festival on July 24, 2022.