The penultimate episode of the Road To Joni series packs in more conversations than any episode so far. As host Carmel Holt heads east toward home and the finale of the series on Joni’s 81st birthday, the throughline of “Both Sides Now” continues on with four artists whose creative path would have been very different if not for Joni Mitchell. Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath was introduced to Joni’s music at the age of 12 by her dad. They listened in the car on cassette until she knew the songs by heart. Amelia cites Joni’s freedom with her voice and her ability to talk openly about the challenges of living inside the music industry as core inspiration for her own creative journey. She tells Carmel that she thinks that the celebration of Joni should go on forever.
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.”