Joni Mitchell has received a wave of praise after performing her first scheduled headlining show in more than 20 years.
The legendary singer-songwriter has maintained a somewhat low profile in recent history, after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015.
After a surprise set at the Newport Folk Festival last year, she took to the stage in Quincy, Washington on Saturday night for a three-hour show that marked her first headlining gig since the early 2000s.
Over the course of the night, the 79-year-old performed signature tracks like Big Yellow Taxi, Both Sides Now and A Case Of You, and was also joined by a host of celebrity guests, most notably Annie Lennox, Brandi Carlile and Sarah McLachlan, all of whom remained on stage for the duration.
She also covered standards like Why Do Fools Fall In Love, Young At Heart and Summertime.
Between songs, she also spoke at length as the night went on, apparently expressing bewilderment when she saw the audience’s phone lights illuminated (“you look like a fallen constellation,” she apparently said), while also sharing anecdotes about fellow musicians like Prince, spurred on by the night’s emcee, Brandi Carlile.
Variety wrote that the show was “a testament to the singer-songwriter’s own willpower in fighting her way back to full performance mode after a debilitating physical setback that went unmentioned but was not far out of mind”.
Hailing her guitar playing, the outlet described it as “exhilarating” to hear Joni “revisit her signature style, seemingly effortlessly” while playing guitar on multiple tracks.
The New York Times was similarly glowing, describing the show as a “resurrection”.
“To hear Mitchell hit certain notes again in that inimitable voice was like glimpsing, in the wild, a magnificent bird long feared to have gone extinct,” they said.
Meanwhile, in their own five-star review, The Guardian wrote: “Despite the heavy praise back and forth, Mitchell’s performance feels ego-free. She laughs and cracks jokes between songs and further extols the virtues of her fellow performers, never seeming to take the evening too seriously.
“That sets the tone for a joyful show, though the momentousness of the occasion leaves more than a few audience members – and even some on stage – tearful.”