Joni Mitchell Shines in 2022 Newport Folk Festival Appearance

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Brandi Carlile offers Joni Mitchell a hug and kiss during their performance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival (Photo © Amber Soutra; used with permission)

Joni Mitchell made a surprise performance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival on July 24 as a special guest of Brandi Carlile, whose set on the Fort Stage closed the event. The 78-year-old Mitchell, still looking frail seven years after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015, sang a whopping 13 songs, singing lead on the George Gershwin standard “Summertime” and as part of the ensemble with “Brandi Carlile & Friends,” as the set was billed, on her classics “Both Sides Now,” “Help Me” and “The Circle Game.” The set also included covers of such favorites as “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and “Love Potion No. 9.” Watch several performances below.

Earlier that year, Mitchell was honored by the Recording Academy as the MusiCares Person of the Year. She joined the event’s assembled lineup of performers, including Carlile, on that April 1 night to sing “The Circle Game” and “Big Yellow Taxi.” That was believed to be the first time she had sung in public since 2013.

At the 2022 Folk Festival performance, Mitchell, born Nov. 7, 1943, remained seated for most of her set, which started with her songs “Carey” and “Come In From the Cold.” At one point, though, she stunned the crowd as she stood to play a guitar solo.

A Best Classic Bands source at the concert noted that she (understandably) started off tentatively, but soon “got her sea legs.”

Watch her sing “Both Sides Now.” (And, yes, that’s Wynonna Judd, another surprise guest)

Our source singled out her terrific performance of “Summertime.”

Other songs in her set included “Just Like This Train” and “Amelia.”

Watch her sing “A Case of You” and “Big Yellow Taxi”

Watch the evening’s finale, “The Circle Game”

The singer-songwriting legend’s triumphant return to the stage on that July 24 Sunday afternoon was featured on the 2023 live album, At Newport, from Rhino. It’s available for order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. The album earned Mitchell a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 66th annual awards held on Feb. 4, 2024.

I’ve really never seen anything like what @jonimitchell accomplished at the @Newportfolkfest on Sunday. She showed the whole world that there’s still so much goodness in us as a species. She did the revolutionary work of true reconciliation.

I can NOT come down!!! pic.twitter.com/7O5v7EzWvR

— Brandi Carlile (@brandicarlile) July 28, 2022

One night earlier, Paul Simon, who retired from touring in 2018, joined Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats for four songs during their “American Tunes Revue” at the same venue.