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TRIO PAYS TRIBUTE TO JONI MITCHELL'S "BLUE"

Julie Ness, Dave Wysocki and Tristan Bellerive performing Joni Mitchell's legendary album "Blue" at Next Stage. Considered a groundbreaking album of the 20th century, "Blue" defined a generation with a ten song cycle, weaving a journey of hope, yearning, love, loss and heartbreak.

After a year and a half of rehearsing, researching and listening again and again to the breakthrough album, Ness (vocals, dulcimer, piano), Wysocki (bass) and Bellerive (guitar) first performed "Blue" in Hartland, VT in November, 2018, three days after Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday. In addition to singing all ten songs and playing piano on four, as Mitchell did, Oberlin-trained opera singer Ness learned to play an Appalachian dulcimer for "All I Want," "Carey" and "California." The trio begins their performances with a discussion of Joni Mitchell's musical language (open tunings, piano style), her poetry, her life and the events that led to "Blue."

Recorded in Los Angeles in 1970 and released in 1971, "Blue" represents a turning point and pinnacle in 20th-century popular music" (New York Times - January, 2000). It was also rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," the highest entry by a female artist. In July 2017, "Blue" was chosen by NPR as the greatest album of all time made by a woman.

In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The "Blue" album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either."

Tickets will be available at the door beginning at 6:45pm.