Joni Mitchell waves to the crowd during her 70th birthday tribute concert as part of the Luminato Festival at Massey Hall in Toronto on June 18, 2013. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press
Joni Mitchell gave Newport Folk Festival audiences the surprise of a lifetime on Sunday when she played her first full live set in more than two decades.
The beloved Canadian folk singer-songwriter appeared as a guest of Grammy-winning musician Brandi Carlile, who closed this year’s festival with a show billed as “Brandi Carlile & Friends.”
Instead, it was Mitchell, 78, at center stage, accompanied by Carlile and other guests, including Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons and Montreal native Allison Russell, who played the clarinet.
The set began with group singing Carey before Mitchell sang Now both sides, Big Yellow Taxi i summer.
At one point, he put on an electric guitar to play Just like this trainbefore closing the show with a performance by The circle game.
Mitchell has been gradually returning to public life after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015.
Last December, she was honored at the Kennedy Center in recognition of a lifetime of achievement for artistic excellence, while in April she was toasted as MusiCares Person of the Year at the Grammys.
The Newport, Rhode Island music festival has long embraced Mitchell’s presence in folk music. When she was still an unknown singer, the festival invited her to perform at its 1967 edition as part of a line-up of up-and-coming musicians that also included Leonard Cohen.
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