They’re rolling out the red carpet in Los Angeles this week for a Canadian icon.
Joni Mitchell is celebrating her 75th birthday and artists including James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Seal, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall and Rufus Wainwright are performing her songs at The Music Centre.
In this Dec. 6, 1995 file photo, singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell poses with the Century Award at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Nadel, File)
Mitchell is expected to appear on stage Wednesday night, her actual birthday.
“She is possibly the most brave lyricist apart from Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and maybe Neil (Young), ” says Mitchell’s long-time friend Danny Kapilian, who is producing the show.
“But Joni really goes to a place that even they don’t. Joni’s perspective as a woman from her place and time is unique.
Joni Mitchell, shown playing to a sold out crowd at General Motors Place in Vancouver in 1998, is being honoured this week in Los Angles. (The Canadian Press/Nick Procaylo)
“Her fearlessness is the main thing that I think comes through”
This March 20, 2008 file photo shows Joni Mitchell, left, and Herbie Hancock perform as part of Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark Mainz, File)
Mitchell has been mostly out of the public eye since being hospitalized for a brain aneurysm in 2015.
Details of her current physical health have been kept private.
“All I can tell you is that she’s doing fine and she’s excited to see it all,” Kapilian says.
In this Oct. 11, 2014 file photo, Joni Mitchell arrives to the Hammer Museum’s “Gala In The Garden,” in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File)
“She’s been kept in the loop (about the celebration) the whole time.”
Mitchell who was raised in Saskatchewan became part of the Los Angeles folk scene in the late 1960s and her 1971 album Blue ranks 30 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
She has won nine Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 2002.
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, she became a companion of the Order of Canada in 2004.
With files from CP, CBC
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