Joni Mitchell surprises festival crowd with set

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell stole the show with a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on Sunday, playing her first full set since 2002 alongside country star Brandi Carlile.

The 78-year-old singer played some of her biggest hits, including “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A Case of You.”

Seated in a wingback chair and wearing a blue beret and sunglasses, Mitchell joined Carlile and a bevy of other artists, including Wynonna Judd, Allison Russell and Marcus Mumford. It was Mitchell’s first Newport festival performance since 1969.

The set had been billed on the festival lineup simply as “Brandi Carlile and Friends.” Mitchell has mostly kept out of the limelight in recent years after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015.

“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. “After all she’s been through, she returned to the Newport Folk Fest stage after 53 years and I will never forget sitting next to her while she stopped this old world for a while,” she wrote, adding: “I can’t even watch it without the tears from coming back.”

This was, Carlile explained, a recreation of the “Joni Jam” musical gatherings that have brought famous friends like Elton John to perform at Mitchell’s Los Angeles home in recent years.

And Mitchell wasn’t there to just to sing. Halfway through the 13-song set, she played an electric guitar solo, which was her first time playing guitar in public since her aneurysm, Carlile said.

The ensemble played Mitchell’s most familiar songs (“Circle Game”) and a few of her favorites (“Love Potion No. 9,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”).

After their rendition of “Both Sides Now,” Carlile was fighting back tears. Addressing the audience, she asked: “Did the world just stop?”

Speaking to “CBS Mornings” after the show, Mitchell said she was nervous during pre-show rehearsals, “but I didn’t sound too bad tonight,” adding: “I’m feeling the love.”