The first volume of the
Joni Mitchell Archives series shed significant light on the beginning of
Mitchell's musical journey, compiling a wealth of unreleased demos, radio broadcasts, and live tapes from the years just before she began making records. The extensive collection painted a detailed picture of
Mitchell's nascent years growing as a songwriter and performer in the independent folkie scene, and
Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 2: The Reprise Years 1968-1971 does just as thorough and impressive a job of drawing back the curtain on the lively period surrounding her first four albums. The collection moves in chronological order, beginning with some rough home demos for songs from 1968 debut
Song to a Seagull and its 1969 follow-up,
Clouds. Hissy home recordings of tracks like
Clouds' "Roses Blue" offer interesting counterpoint to the more polished studio versions, and documentation of this phase also includes outtakes from the
Song to a Seagull sessions. The most intimate inclusions here are relaxed demos made at a friend's Manhattan apartment in early 1968. Sketches like "It's Easy" and "Another Melody" find
Mitchell humming wordless placeholder melodies and sometimes searching for the next chord on the guitar as she finds her way but still sounding sublime. A complete recording of both sets from a 1968 gig at an Ottawa coffee house (recorded by
Jimi Hendrix, no less) captures
Mitchell playing at full power to a sparse crowd, and a shortly afterwards the track list jumps to a full performance from a packed Carnegie Hall less than a year later.
Mitchell was evolving at a blinding pace in this four-year period, and the collection traces that growth at every turn. The difference is marked between a somewhat mellow September 1968 version of "Chelsea Morning" made with the
John Cameron Group for a BBC broadcast and the soaring solo rendition of the same song at Carnegie Hall just five months later. Similar demos, outtakes, and live material are included from the time of third album
Ladies of the Canyon and 1971 masterpiece
Blue. The
Blue-related tracks are some of the collection's most exciting and include a lengthy Paris concert from October of 1970 where
Mitchell is joined by
James Taylor for duets of
Blue songs that were yet to be released at that point. The massive set closes out with three outtakes from the
Blue studio sessions, including a version of B-side "Urge for Going" with a string arrangement, the upbeat "Hunter," and an unreleased mix of "River" with French horns playing familiar melodies from Christmas carols over the song's melancholy piano progression. Much like the volume before it, this installment of the archive series is a must for
Joni completists, zeroing in on one of her most vibrant phases. If the first volume of the
Joni Mitchell Archives tracked the development of an artist finding her voice,
Volume 2 illuminates the creative process from a time when that voice was reaching its zenith. ~ Fred Thomas
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