There Is More Freedom To Explore

For Episode 6, we continue a thread from last week as host Carmel
Holt talks with three “boundary dweller” artists about their Roads
To Joni. Each of our guests this week are visionaries who push
beyond their comfort zone. They are producers, singers, songwriters
and instrumentalists. Like Joni, they are multi-Grammy nominees and
winners who do things on their own terms.   Grammy award
winning artist Arooj Aftab spent her teenage years in Lahore,
Pakistan listening to American folk music. She found Joni
Mitchell’s Blue and from there she was “all in.” Arooj
takes us through her guest DJ set that spans Joni’s earliest
recordings through to her jazz-influenced and more contemporary
work. She sites “Black Crow” from Joni’s 1976
album Hejira as having a powerful impact on her. 
Singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, producer and
Grammy award winner Brittany Howard sees Joni as “someone who
wouldn't let any confines stop her from expressing herself.” We
would say the same about Brittany, who has not allowed herself to
be defined by genre. She has explored pop, punk, lo-fi garage, glam
and folk along her sonic path to her current album, What
Now.  Finally, we meet up with three time Grammy award winning
artist Annie Clark aka St. Vincent for a conversation in
Minneapolis/St. Paul with Carmel and public radio station The
Current in front of an audience of their members. Annie says
that Hejira was the portal through which she fell in love
with Joni. She credits Joni for being a trailblazer who makes only
the music she wants to make. She says, “she did whatever the F she
wanted and people were there for it, because it was just that
good.”