Track Listing

1. Free Man In Paris - Stevens, Sufjan
2. Boho Dance - Bjork
3. Dreamland - Veloso, Caetano
4. Don't Interrupt The Sorrow - Mehldau, Brad
5. For The Roses - Wilson, Cassandra
6. Case Of You - Prince
7. Blue - McLachlan, Sarah
8. Ladies Of The Canyon - Lennox, Annie
9. Magdalene Laundries - Harris, Emmylou
10. Edith And The Kingpin - Costello, Elvis
11. Help Me - Lang, K.D.
12. River - Taylor, James (1)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27651 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Tribute records live or die by the performers' ability to interpret the subject's work in new and inventive frameworks, or by how well they evoke the spirit of the original recordings. Joni Mitchell's poetic folk and jazz offers infinite possibilities for the former, which makes the notion of this collection by indie rockers, pop divas, and country and folk practitioners most appealing. Not surprisingly, for most of the men it turns out to be more of an intellectual exercise than an emotional foray (Elvis Costello's harder take on "Edith and the Kingpin," Sufjan Stevens's jumbled sonic landscape on "Free Man in Paris"). But there are some breathtaking performances from the women, starting with Bjork's wide-eyed cover of "The Bojo Dance" and moving on to Cassandra Wilson's mahogany-voiced "For the Roses," Emmylou Harris's devastating reading of "The Magdalene Laundries," and Sarah McLachlan's goosebump-raising "Blue," where her vocals approximate Mitchell's so thoroughly some folks might be fooled. Hands down, the most peculiar track is Prince's doo-woppy "A Case of You," which nearly defies description. The project got started in the late '90s and was finished only recently, which probably accounts for a stilted unevenness and seeming lack of continuity. Think of this as an interesting companion to Mitchell's vast and vital body of work. But the revered Lady of the Canyon doubtless deserves a far more comprehensive and well-executed homage. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

a shiner
I waited a long time for this to be released, making regular visits to her website, and, well, after the first couple of songs I was getting a bit uneasy. But of course, it's a tribute not a tribute band (that's called Big Yellow Taxi or something), and you'd expect and hope that artists would give their own heart and soul into their chosen song and not just do a karoake version.

There're a couple that I don't really like too much, though I appreciate the effort in trying to be different - Sufjan Stevens' Free Man In Paris is quirky and odd, like he's trying too hard to be Syd Barrett or the Small Faces. Veloso just does a relaxed version of Dreamland. But apart from that, it's joy all the way.

There're some real gems on here: Cassandra Wilson, Sarah McLachlan and Elvis do their songs real justice. However, the best are by Emmylou Harris, who brings all her life-long experience and soul to Joni's heartbreaking and powerful indictment of the Catholic Church; k d Land - who delivers what has to be one of her best vocal performances for years. There are a lot of versions of this beautiful song around, but hers has to be one of the best I've ever heard. It just shows what her disappointing Hymns to the 49th Parallel could have been like if she had sung like this on it. Of course, there's James Taylor's superb River - simple, honest and, well, he just has a bit of a head start where Joni Mitchell is concerned doesn't he.

Finally, I have to mention A Case of You by Prince. I just can't stop playing this. His voice is absolutely amazing, soaring, dipping and swooping over a sort of slow funk-gospel arrangement (Doo wop?? It's not doo wop, and no doo wop singer ever sang with anywhere near his power, control or emotion). He manages to impart so much soul, energy, sex, sorrow, chagrin, love......into his wonderful falsetto - easily the best exponent of this style in the world. And he plays all the instruments apart from the drums, as well as producing and arranging it. What an absolute star.

I was nearly going to award it 4 stars, but I just couldn't give an album with these performances by Prince, k d Lang, James Taylor and Emmylou Harris anything less than a resounding 5.

Why Is The Word "Tribute" Associated With This Half-Hearted Souless Effort?"
Mother of God! But the great lady deserved better than this! What were these twats thinking!!

Joni's masterpiece "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns", stands beside Bob Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks" as one of those albums from the mid 70's that never dates - and grows with each listen - to a point where you wonder why everyone everywhere isn't running around like headless chickens raving about it.

So what do we get? We get the 3 best tracks from "Hissing" chosen by Bjork (Boho Dance), Brad Mehldau (Don't Interrupt The Sorrow) and Elvis Costello (Edith & The Kingpin) and each is slaughtered, I mean absolutely wrecked - all subtlety, melody, lyrical brilliance lost to "reinterpretation". You have to hear what squeeky screwball Bjork has done to The Boho Dance - absolutely dire! And then we get a souless piano plinking instrumental of Don't Interrupt The Sorrow with the production value of a cat pissing in a bucket. Costello does jazz on Edith and it's just laughably bad!

It isn't all crap of course. There are moments. Prince's "A Case Of You" is done with soul by a soulster - and I love it - because you can at least feel his joy at her in it - and he doesn't do what most of the others have done - chosen pretty songs and wrecked them or made them banal. Emmylou Harris does a sterling version too of "Magadelene Laundries" and gets Joni's indignation and hurt for the girls in the song just right. Free Man In Paris fares worse, a jazz/US indie noodle tossfest from Sufjan Stevens and Annie Lennox (an artist I adore) does little but synth up Ladies Of The Canyon - again killing a lovely song. The album finishes with a workmanlike rendition of River by James Taylor - but it doesn't move you - and you only want to rush back to the originals to get this lame cack out of your head as soon as possible.

What's fundamentally wrong here is the ham-fisted way most of these artists have approached the songs. Which is unbelievable given the calibre of the people involved! And then what could have been? The choices missed, not even tried. How about Paul Simon doing a soulful rendition of "The Circle Game", Me'Shell Ndegeocello doing a slow funk version of "Car On The Hill", Gordon Lightfoot doing an acoustic "Urge For Going", Linda Ronstadt & Don Henley doing a modern heartbreak production of "How Do You Stop", Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush re-united for a delicate version of "Conversation", Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama doing acapella on "Shadows and Light", Ryan Adams and Norah Jones dueting on a country version of "Both Sides Now", Mark Hollis & A Choir doing a gospel version of "For Free", Tinariwen and Willie Nelson doing an Eastern/World version of "Lakota"?? You get the picture! With a little imagination and effort - what a project this could have been!!

I would say - check the tracks out by short listens first - but apart from a few of them - avoid the whole project.

Good songs are good songs...
I had a relatively recent Joni Mitchell epiphany, and slowly, steadily, I am working my way through her remarkable catalogue.

I wasn't expecting much from this tribute album, but happy to say I am really enjoying it. Usually tribute albums are an ill-thought out collection of tracks from artists that don't really have too much to offer. Here, however, I am feeling the love the featured artists clearly have for Joni. The songs are delivered with feeling and there's a clear respect for this amazing song-writer. Perhaps that's the key to the success of this tribute album - good songs are good songs, no matter what.

Prince's "Case Of You", I initially thought took too much of a liberty with the melody, but after a couple of listens I'm really loving his take. Björk's "Boho Dance" is wonderful. Cassandra Wilson's "For The Roses" is beautiful. And James Taylor's "River" was a big surprise. I think my favourite is Emmylou Harris' "Magdalene Laundries"... especially after seeing that documentary about Joni and her daughter's union. (The bad news is you're adopted; the good news is your birth mother is Joni Mitchell!).

I love Joni Mitchell and this tribute is very loving.