Review – The
Best of Joni Mitchell Too
@ The Basement
12 August 1999
Roberta Joan
Anderson was born in Alberta, Canada in November 1943 but it wasn’t until after
high school that she fully turned her talents toward that for which we best
know singer songwriter and influence to a great many musicians Joni
Mitchell. Singer-songwriters as different as Tori
Amos, Madonna,
Seal,
Annie
Lennox and Prince
cite her as an influence.
Closer to home
artists the likes of Tania
Bowra, Kristen
Cornwell, Gemma Deacon, Robyne Dunn, Rachel
Gaudry, Karen
Jacobsen, Sarah
McGregor, Juliet
Obsessed, Louise
Perryman and Rebecca Rennie have
taken that influence to another step by performing in what could only be
described as the tribute to Joni
Mitchell at the Basement not once, but twice! Each night was a
success with those of us choosing to be fashionably late for the second
learning to heed the ‘come early’ warnings for the third.
The names of
the performers tonight further indicate the breadth of Joni’s repertoire. Those who
only know the Big Yellow Taxi are
missing out on so much more, but would have been astounded by the night’s
closer which featured the whole band and all of tonight’s artistes (thanks also
to a Classic Hits station - chosen solely
for mood-setting - for playing it as I trundled through Camperdown!)
From the
either-ends-of-jazz of both The Last Time
I Saw Richard and Twisted to the
full-on-Seventies tres-tres Steely
Dan of Feel Free and In France, through the various
interpretations of tunes like Woman of
Heart and Mind, I Had A King, Be Cool and Woodstock, stand-out performances included Rebecca’s performance to the whole
audience, movement and expression, Juliet’s
and Robyne’s audience captivation,
Karen’s
rocky crowd-wakener and Rachel’s
ability to switch from 70s radio to smoky bar-room.
Tonight’s
performances did for sequels a thing or two that Mr Lucas
might want to look at for his next venture. ARIA Award winners, NIDA Graduates, poets and comediennes,
signed and unsigned classically trained and natural musicians,
singer-songwriters above all else, drew together a large group of Sydney
punters and music lovers alike who appreciate entrepreneurial abilities. The
slick and professional show that led to this same-level follow-up hopefully
promises a third night soon.