February 16, 1999

Posted February 16, 1999

"Joni Mitchell:Painting With Words And Music," will be available for purchase on March 30th, in 3 formats- (List Price) VHS $19.98, DVD $24.99, and Laser Disc $29.99. Originally airing on November 6th, 1998, via pay per view channel "Viewers Choice," the video is being released and distributed in the U.S. by Image Entertainment.

If you missed this wonderful concert when it aired on pay TV, you should run right out and buy it on home video; It's a must-have for every Joni-phile. The video box has a booklet style sleeve, meaning that the front cover folds over with the song titles listed on the two resulting cardboard panels.

Joni's intimate performance, which was attended by her fans and celebrity friends such as Rosanna Arquette, (who introduces the evening) k.d. Lang, Joaquin Cooder, Natalie Imbruglia, Bijou & Mackenzie Philips, Graham Nash, Darryl Hannah, John Densmore, among others, was taped on the Warner Bros. lot in May of 1998. Image Entertainment says in it's new catalogue: "This concert is classic Joni Mitchell, and her repertoire here covers the complete arc of her career."

In the October 31st issue of Billboard magazine, in the only interview she's given concerning her live special, Joni said: "I designed the set we play on...It brings together my artwork and my songs with an audience in the live, in-the-round setting of a soundstage. So it's an intimate evening of my painting and music."

Joni's manager, Sam Feldman, mentioned in the same Billboard article, that Eagle Rock Entertainment, the producers of the special, were the company that "...was willing to give (Joni) complete creative control."