Joni Mitchell will appear in Bovard Friday night

by Rosalind Silver
USC Daily Trojan
October 2, 1968

Joni Mitchell, Canada's answer to Joan Baez, will exhibit her style of comment on life through balladry Friday at 8 pm. in Bovard Auditorium in the first ASSC-sponsored concert of the school year.

The concert will be the first major appearance for the 24-year-old blonde from Saskatchewan since her return from a recent European tour.

Miss Mitchell made her Los Angeles debut at the Troubador [sic] in June, her first big exposure outside of the Canadian folksinging circuit, in addition to an album she recorded at the same time for Reprise.

The singer-composer's style leads inevitably to comparison with Joan Baez and Judi [sic] Collins, but the songs she sings are all her own. She bases the effect of her singing on the combination of lyrical content, drawn from her experience of lives and personalities, and melody and her own acoustic guitar accompaniment.

One of her songs, "I Had a King," describes the end of a relationship and tells of a "tenement castle" with pastel walls - her description of her living quarters on the Wayne campus in Canada.

She dedicated her first album, "to Mr. Kratzman, who taught me to love words," and her songs are sprinkled with plays on words, double and multiple meanings and literary word plays, like "Midway down the Midway," and "Cartwheels turn to car wheels."

Her repertoire also includes songs such as "Cactus Tree," the account of alienation found in pursuit of 'freedom,' "Marcie," and "Michael from the Mountains" and "Both Sides Now," which have been used by Judy Collins.

Miss Mitchell discovered the folk singing world as a commercial art student at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. She learned a few ukelele [sic] chords and ballads, and got her first singing job in Depression, a local coffeehouse.

She wrote her first song, "Day after Day," on the train traveling to Ontario's Mariposa Folk Festival, timing the rhythm of the blues number to the rails of the Canadian Pacific.

Turning an avocation into a career, she found work in Toronto and Detroit clubs and coffeehouses, later adding New York, where she was signed by Reprise before coming to Los Angeles.

Ticket order blanks for Friday night's concert may be obtained at the Student Activities Center or at Bovard for $3, $2 or $1.50. Previously obtained order blanks may be redeemed for tickets at the YWCA or at Bovard Friday night.


Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website. Permanent link: https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=3624

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