Please note: if topics of suicide and gender-based violence are triggering for you, listen with care.

We set out on this journey not only to celebrate Joni Mitchell, but also to explore the immense power of music and community to heal, unite, inspire and crack us wide open… which this experience certainly did.

For this final episode, Carmel talks to 7x Emmy award winning journalist and senior culture and senior national correspondent for CBS News, Anthony Mason. He tells us about his decision to get to Newport when he heard that Joni was going to be there in 2022; and camping out in an Airbnb during the festival, hoping that he’d get “the call.” When that call came and he was summoned to rehearsals at an old church at Fort Adams State Park, the site of the Newport Folk Festival, he knew that his patience had paid off. Anthony got 15 minutes with Joni and with that, he secured the first televised interview with her since her aneurysm in 2015. Anthony says that the experience of seeing Joni perform at Newport 2022 was “everything we’ve waited for and so much more.”

FInally, we hear from a listener that Carmel met on night two of the Hollywood Bowl Joni Jam shows. Our new friend, Cory Reeder, is an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. The heartfelt story of his road to Joni leaves us, once again, in tears. He says that “Joni Mitchell is courage” and that “she is the hero that we need.” Cory says that he is forever grateful for living in this time of Joni. We can’t think of a better sentiment to end on.

It has been an honor and a privilege to have you on this journey with us.

Multi-grammy award winning and nominated singer, songwriter and Tony award winning playwright and author Anäis Mitchell says that Joni is in the DNA of what she does as an artist. She talks about the impact of Hejira and the powerful example it set for her to witness a woman genius (Joni) doing it on her own terms. Anäis shares that she can relate deeply to the duality of “Both Sides Now” - how revisiting something in her 40s that was written in her 20s can mean something totally different.

Next we hear from Allison Russell about how her “Once & Future Sounds” set at the reemergence of Newport in 2021 came about, and how it led her to being on stage with Joni Mitchell the following year, as well as The Gorge in 2023, and most recently, at the Hollywood Bowl. She pinpoints hearing the clarinet in “For Free” for the first time as a pivotal moment that led her to playing clarinet with Joni as part of the Joni Jam.

Our final conversation in Episode 9 is with Grammy nominated Irish singer, songwriter, multi- instrumentalist Andrew Hozier Byrne, aka Hozier. He talks about how Joni’s music cracks open the hearts of anyone who listens to it… and we can attest that in this episode, even stories about Joni’s music will crack some hearts open. Andrew tells Carmel about a meeting with Brandi Carlile in LA that led him to Joni’s living room as part of an early Joni Jam. He emotionally tells the story of how Herbie Hancock started playing “Summertime” and Joni started singing along. He says about Joni, “It’s like being in the presence of something mythical.”

Pianist and genre-blending musician Bruce Hornsby sings us through his Road to Joni, which includes Joni's first live album Miles of Aisles, a revelation that led him to devour her entire early catalogue, becoming a "complete Joni Mitchell devotee." In the 90's, Hornsby would go on to play on Shawn Colvin's second album, Fat City, produced by Larry Klein. Bruce ends by giving us a hint at a new project that he considers a "Paprika Plains"-like opus.

Banjo player and fellow breaker of genre-boundaries Béla Fleck's Road began with a birthday gift from his stepfather: a copy of Blue that he would wear out that summer. Béla recounts how "The Last Time I Saw Richard" taught him entirely new emotions as a teenager. Later on, he tells us how he, too, played on Shawn Colvin's album with Hornsby and Klein, and got to record in Joni's house. He also shares the story of a terrifying overnight hospital stay his son and family endured, where they played Night Ride Home on repeat to get them through.

Grammy award winning artist Arooj Aftab spent her teenage years in Lahore, Pakistan listening to American folk music. She found Joni Mitchell’s Blue and from there she was “all in.” Arooj takes us through her guest DJ set that spans Joni’s earliest recordings through to her jazz-influenced and more contemporary work. She sites “Black Crow” from Joni’s 1976 album Hejira as having a powerful impact on her. 

Singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, producer and Grammy award winner Brittany Howard sees Joni as “someone who wouldn't let any confines stop her from expressing herself.” We would say the same about Brittany, who has not allowed herself to be defined by genre. She has explored pop, punk, lo-fi garage, glam and folk along her sonic path to her current album, What Now. 

Finally, we meet up with three time Grammy award winning artist Annie Clark aka St. Vincent for a conversation in Minneapolis/St. Paul with Carmel and public radio station The Current in front of an audience of their members. Annie says that Hejira was the portal through which she fell in love with Joni. She credits Joni for being a trailblazer who makes only the music she wants to make. She says, “she did whatever the F she wanted and people were there for it, because it was just that good.” 

His photo sessions with Joni Mitchell spanned over 15 years and 12 sessions, and his photography of Joni has appeared in the album packaging and covers for Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Hejira, Dog Eat Dog, and her Hits and Misses compilations. Norman Seeff tells host Carmel Holt that Joni is one of the most courageous people he’s ever worked with, and in this fascinating episode that traces Norman's road to Joni and where it led him, we learn how the process of writing and compiling his book Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions he realized that he had not only captured Joni's metamorphosis but he also had been led to the guiding philosophy about creativity and the artistic spirit that has guided his work, and his personal evolution.

Joni’s influence on powerhouse string players and Joni Jam members Chauntee and Monique of SistaStrings began with “the lady that sings on the Janet Jackson song. (‘Got Til It’s Gone’).” A move from their hometown of Milwaukee to Nashville immersed the sisters in the Americana scene… which led them to a place in Brandi Carlisle’s touring band… which led to that fateful Newport 2022 performance when Joni took the stage. SistaStrings credit Joni for being an example for women to “stand on your own, be who you are, make weird music and be loud about it.”

**Special thanks to Low and Sub Pop Records for granting permission to release this radio episode as a podcast, with full songs intact.