A Moment and a Lifetime with Joni

by Trevor Dodson

When I was about 15 years old, my dad received some belongings from a family member who had passed which included a box of CDs. My dad gave me the box and said I should flip through them to see if anything interested me. I downloaded a few onto my iPod (these were pre-streaming days) and did some sample listens. One of those albums was Joni Mitchell’s 1991 “Night Ride Home”. I was mesmerized by such a distinct voice flowing through my headphones, with intricate guitar pickings accompanying. That voice combined with poetry and complex guitar tunings – I knew she must be special.

Over the next few years, I took a deep dive and discovered a well-respected artist with an impressive discography. I quickly started searching for and collecting Joni Mitchell LPs. I was instantly enamored with the album art and, of course, the music.

With my love came sorrow. I thought Joni wouldn’t ever perform publicly in my lifetime. She hasn’t made an album since 2002, and has smoked almost her entire life; it seems like each decade, her voice has lowered in range and has become huskier. If she were to tour, I guessed it would be too far away and probably quite expensive. After Joni suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015, I was sure the world wouldn’t hear her sing again.

In her youth, Joni overcame polio and its complications; doctors claimed she wouldn’t walk again. She proved them wrong, demonstrating great resilience. Turns out she’s quite the fighter, and surprised a crowd at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 2022 by singing and playing the guitar with the help of a crew of musicians.

In October of 2022, it was revealed that the legend herself would perform in her first announced show in 20 years. I felt a mix of excitement, anxiety, and skepticism – mostly due to her age, health issues, and realizing that her other fans would be just as determined as me to buy tickets for such a big event. Would this show actually happen? Was there any chance I could get tickets? Lately, for popular music events, online ticket sites are notorious for long waits and website crashes. I was so nervous to think I might miss out on what I knew would be a fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime moment.

After anxiously waiting to get in the online queue, I was lucky enough to snag tickets for four seats. I felt numbly overjoyed. In early June of 2023, I made the long-awaited journey. I met with my friend, Elizabeth, in Vancouver and we, along with two of her friends, crossed the Canadian border and headed for George, WA. The Gorge Amphitheatre, which holds 27,500 people, is situated within a canyon, with the Columbia River in the background. None of us had ever been to a venue like that before.

Prior to the concert beginning, you could feel the shocks of excitement, jittery nerves, and joy pulsing through the crowd. The show itself was everything and more. Joni came out at 9 PM and didn’t stop until midnight. We were in the lawn section with rental chairs (a lifesaver) and still had an excellent view of the stage and screens.

Joni’s range is quite deep now, her voice husky, but her control and tone are still incredible. She played an array of her music- late 60s songs through to the early 2000s.

Joni Mitchell playing live, combined with the sunset over the canyon and river, was an overwhelmingly beautiful scene that stays imprinted in my mind.

There will come a day when Joni is no longer able to sing, and all we will have is what has already been sung. Even if I was just one body filled with the electric energy in the thousands that watched her that night, and the hundreds of thousands that have listened to her music and seen her perform over the years, I was a part of the “Joni Journey,” and that is something I will always hold on to.

Surrounded by beauty and majesty, it is the charred, dead trunk that catches the eye. It was once as lovely as its living relatives. Is it not still? Without pain, there could be no beauty. Without loss, there could be no beauty. Without the certainty of impermanence, there could be no beauty. And these three qualities of life not only create space for beauty, but possess it in their nature as well. It is in the knowledge that all things change and fade that our aching human hearts are stirred with awe and longing. Longing to hold on to that which we find glorious, if only for the fleeting time we are able. Soak in the joy of the beautiful, but do not neglect its inextricable sadness. It is the fusion of these two emotions that stays in our hearts long after the sunset has dissolved, the flower has wilted, and the wolf has breathed its last breath.

-Madeline C. Lanshe