Joni Mitchell and David Rea came home to the Mariposa Folk Festival last night.
Joni, a rare, splendid weaver of songs and living in Laurel Canyon from which pop legends are born, and Rea, an innovator of country guitar strumming and unusually powerful [text layout broken/obscured] years of Mariposa, brought it all together.
If more than any other performers over Mariposa's last five years the pair, performing separately and to standing ovations at the concluding concert, stand for what the annual festival is all about.
Joni first performed at Mariposa in 1965, unknown and carrying her guitar over her shoulder with a few songs to offer. Rea kept to the shadows accompanying Gordon Lightfoot, later Ian and Sylvia. At Mariposa they were given their chance to work display their craft.
Last night, Rea, in Elvis Presley gold satin pants, wine-colored shirt and buckskin, beat a time that was all his own from a high-flying version of his song titled Maverick Child to ahigh-flying version of David and Goliath
No longer the man of the shadows he was eight years. Rea has, in the jargon, "brought it altogether" to wild applause.
Joni Mitchell brought with her some lovely quiet songs that she performed last year, of the last public concerts she has given in a year - Marcie, the girl alone in the big city, and Nathan LaFraneer, the crass, harsh cab driver.
And on her hand-fashioned dulcimer, she showed a new tenderness - California I'm Coming Home, a woman homesick and bored with looking for excitement in Spain and France.
It wouldn't be right to ignore the night's other performers. James Taylor, a powerhouse of a singer, frew another standing ovation, and Owen McBride, a Mariposa regular, threw out Irish ditties that were filled with earthy comments on life.
Sara Grey added her own quiet moments and sustained the mood despite interuptions from the sound system.
It was a typical Mariposa program, subtly woven by program director Estelle Klein, mood sustaining and gentle throughout.
Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website. Permanent link: https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=6036
Copyright protected material on this website is used in accordance with 'Fair Use', for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner(s). Please read 'Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement' at JoniMitchell.com/legal.cfm