Joni Mitchell

Brandi Carlile and Friends were joined by Joni Mitchell for a surprise set during Newport Folk Festival. She performed 13 songs.

Mitchell first made a return to the stage in April for her tribute at MusiCares Foundation's annual pre-Grammys event. "What would make her proud? It is also a major feat years after a brain aneurysm temporarily left her unable to walk or talk.

Joni Mitchell has kept a low profile since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. She joined Brandi Carlile for classics like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides ...

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Mitchell performed with the help of 'Brandi Carlile and Friends,' singing and playing guitar on such classics as 'Both Sides Now' and 'The Circle Game.'

Yet Sunday’s show, which also featured renditions of “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and “Love Potion No. 9,” offered a more thorough overview of a career that’s influenced countless musicians over the past half-century. It was also, according to reports, her first time performing at length anywhere since the early 2000s. Mitchell, 78, sang and played guitar with accompaniment from a group of friends and admirers led by Brandi Carlile, who’s covered Mitchell’s classic “Blue” album in concert and who helped spearhead April’s MusiCares Person of the Year tribute to Mitchell. The Newport performance, which wasn’t announced in advance, was billed as Brandi Carlile and Friends; other musicians taking part included Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford, Blake Mills, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius. Mitchell’s set included songs such as “Carey,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Help Me,” “Both Sides Now” and “The Circle Game.” (Watch clips here, here and here.)

Joni Mitchell made a rare public appearance at the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend and performed several of her best-known songs.

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The legend played her first show in 22 years at the Newport Folk Festival, imbuing her early masterpieces with lived experience.

It’s also true that Mitchell could have plucked many other songs from her catalog that would have been equally appropriate to the occasion: tough and tender, hopeful but undeluded, sharing the complicated wisdom gained from a life spent in observation. The words are the same, but their implications are different. Just listen to the version of “Both Sides Now” she released in 2000, 30 years on from the original.

Seeing Joni Mitchell perform these days is a rarity, but this weekend she made it happen when she joined Brandi Carlile on stage in Rhode Island.

, one that required rehabilitation and physical therapy to recover. "I wanted to be good, and I wasn't sure that I could be," Mitchell told CBS Mitchell made a surprising return to the stage Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival, an annual folk music festival in Newport, Rhode Island. The iconic singer -- known for '70s hits like "Amelia" and "Big Yellow Taxi" -- joined Brandi Carlile on stage, for a set that included "A Case of You," "Carey" and the Gershwin classic "Summertime."

The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday.

She added, “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” Mitchell, never one for the limelight, has remained largely out of the public eye since having a brain aneurysm in 2015. “I will never be over this.

The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday.

She added, “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” Mitchell, never one for the limelight, has remained largely out of the public eye since having a brain aneurysm in 2015. “I will never be over this.

Joni Mitchell's surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival was just what we needed — a reminder that joy trumps despair every time.

It wasn’t just a testimony to those miracles that can only be achieved through both individual determination and community support; it was a reminder that there is a reason to keep hanging in there, pushing forward, seeing the bows and flows of angel hair along with the rain and snow. For those who had begun to wonder, with troubling regularity, if it is possible for American culture to recover from its wounds, self-inflicted and otherwise — or, even more tragically, if there is even a reason to try — Mitchell’s performance was a brief glimpse of possibility. But it wasn’t just the wondrous and wholly unexpected sight and sound of this Canadian-born American master live that caused throats around the world to catch. Mitchell delivered the song’s conclusion — “I really don’t know life at all” — not in bewilderment or wistful regret but with amused surrender and a glint of delight. “They could never cage or categorize her,” said one of my friends, who has long worshiped Mitchell. “Each of her works is like a little jewel in how it tells its story, and then there is that beautiful unquenchable voice.” There at the behest of Brandi Carlile, Mitchell, 78, who has spent years recovering from a brain aneurysm, sang, played guitar and proved there is a reason for social media to exist.

The last time this artist took the Newport stage was 1969. Heck, her last full concert anywhere was in the year 2000. So yesterday, when folk star Brandi ...

And the painted ponies go up and down. JONI MITCHELL AND BRANDI CARLILE: (Singing) And the seasons, they go round and round. So that moment during the song "Just Like This Train" from her album "Court And Spark" - wow.

Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell stole the show with a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on Sunday, playing her first ...

“Joni’s looked at life from so many sides and she came out of the storm singing like a prophet,” Carlile wrote on Twitter after the show. In January, Mitchell demanded her work be removed from music-streaming service Spotify in protest of coronavirus misinformation she said was being featured there. Mitchell told CBS she taught herself to play again after the aneurysm.

For the first time since 2000, folk legend Joni Mitchell took to the stage with some friends, to the delight of fans at the Newport Folk Festival.

And the painted ponies go up and down. JONI MITCHELL AND BRANDI CARLILE: (Singing) And the seasons, they go round and round. So that moment during the song "Just Like This Train" from her album "Court And Spark" - wow.

The iconic singer-songwriter wasn't able to walk or talk after a brain aneurysm in 2015. Dr. Anthony Wang, a neurosurgeon, explains the challenges she faced ...

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