Joni Mitchell returns with new music
TORONTO (CP) - Nearly a decade after turning her back on the music industry to focus on painting, poetry and privacy, legendary songstress Joni Mitchell is returning to the spotlight with a new album, a mixed-media art exhibit and plans to expand her ballet for a cross-Canada tour.
Mitchell's long-awaited disc, "Shine," features nine new songs and a reworked version of her classic hit, "Big Yellow Taxi." It's a stirring collection of bittersweet laments that reveals the Canadian icon to be ever the pessimist, but one who believes in miracles, notes friend and collaborator Jean Grand-Maitre.
Grand-Maitre, the artistic director of the Alberta Ballet, says Mitchell's relentless concern for the planet and mankind has been one factor in her recent drive to take on a dizzying array of projects.
"It's been interesting, because there's what, two decades between us, although she has 10 times more energy, passion and ideas than I do," Grand-Maitre says by phone from Calgary, after spending the weekend with Mitchell at her summer home in remote Sechelt, B.C.
"She's an intense conversationalist, you know. I have to really work hard to keep up. At the age of 63 she can run circles around me."
The pair are planning to expand Mitchell's foray into the world of dance, "The Fiddle and the Drum," stretching it to an hour-long performance that could tour the country, and possibly the world, in 2009, Grand-Maitre says.
The ballet, which debuted in Calgary in February, is based on Mitchell's music and set against a backdrop of her politically charged paintings.
Mitchell is keen to work in three or four more songs from her new album, including the title track "Shine," and an original recording of her generation-defining song, "Woodstock," says Grand-Maitre.
The creative spurt comes alongside several Mitchell-related works on the horizon.
She releases her new album on Sept. 25, when she also launches a mixed-media art exhibit in New York, says Grand-Maitre. That same day, good friend Herbie Hancock releases the album "River: The Joni Letters," a tribute to some of her most compelling work, the second such disc this year. In April, "Dreamland" featured covers by admirers young and old, including Sufjan Stevens, Prince and James Taylor.
And in June, Canada Post came out with a stamp in her honour.
When Mitchell retreated from the spotlight years ago, it was with a cutting critique of a music industry she had called "corrupt" and "a cesspool."
She announced her retirement in 2002, spending time with her two grandchildren and reconnecting with her daughter, Kilauren Gibb, whom she gave up for adoption at the age of 19. They reunited in 1997.
Much of that time was spent at her oceanside home in Sechelt, says Grand-Maitre, describing the small stone retreat as a rustic abode filled with antiques.
Mitchell swore she would never record again. Her last album of new material had been 1998's "Taming the Tiger."
Nevertheless, she eventually found the songs spilling out of her.
"I came straight out of retirement into doing the work of three 20-year-olds," Mitchell told The Word magazine in an article published in April.
"I really burnt myself out physically but emotionally it was very uplifting. I realized I wasn't ready for retirement, for gardening and watching old movies, which is what I'd been doing for 10 years."
On "Shine," Mitchell offers up rich, piano-based melodies that touch on jazz, soul, pop and classical sounds but, like much of her diverse catalogue, defy categorization.
Stark lyrics mourn over environmental decline and war.
"This album is about the war of the fairy tales, possibly the end of our species from this macho I-got-a-bigger-bomb-than-you-have instinct," she told Word, a prestigious U.K. music magazine.
"This spaceship we are all riding on is dying, somebody tell the captain to stop punching holes in the wall, we have atrocious leadership everywhere, mankind at his most diabolical."
Mitchell's return to her 1970 classic, "Big Yellow Taxi," is a rhythmic jolt of African, Latin and jazz beats with guitars and synthesizers, but no percussion instruments.
Grand-Maitre notes that while the original version was very much a warning for its day, the modern take is more of a lament over what's already come to pass.
"There's a little bit of cynicism in there and a little humour," he says. "I find that when I hear it, it's certainly with that older voice, that voice of experience. It's almost like ... it's happening now."
The reworked song served as an encore to the original Alberta Ballet production.
Fans in Toronto will get a chance to see the dance in June 2008 as part of the Luminato festival, where Grand-Maitre says it will have a 10-day run in the Alberta Ballet's first-ever collaboration with the National Ballet of Canada.
He says he and Mitchell hope to begin reworking the ballet soon after that in Alberta, and send it across the country in 2009. Grand-Maitre says there is also interest in staging the ballet in Germany and Australia.
As well, "The Fiddle and the Drum" makes its television debut on Bravo in October.
Grand-Maitre calls Mitchell "a true creative artisan."
"She lives to be reborn and risk. She doesn't mind doing a ballet and doing a jazz album with Mingus or reinventing herself and I think the idea of being reborn through the creative process is one that's kept her very much alive."
New 'Seinfeld' Reunion on 'Old Christine'
Jason Alexander will join his fellow former "Seinfeld" co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus on "The New Adventures of Old Christine."
CBS is holding "The New Adventures of Old Christine" for midseason, so it's unclear when Alexander's episode will air.
He's set to play a lizard handler for children's birthday party who somehow gets a date with Christine.
Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy for "Old Christine" last year, adding that trophy to the one she won for "Seinfeld." Although Alexander was nominated for seven Emmys during the run of "Seinfeld," he never won.
Alexander's last regular series gig was on CBS' "Listen Up." He's most recently been seen in guest spots on shows including "Everybody Hates Chris," "Campus Ladies" and "Monk."
Flight Of The Conchords
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of New Zealand folk-comedy act Flight Of The Conchords are good at cracking people up. But the work that goes into accomplishing those giggles and guffaws is no laughing matter.
Clement wistfully tells Billboard.com, "We haven't been having much fun lately -- we've just been stuck inside studios of one kind or another."
In fact, Tony Kiewel, who heads up A&R for the band's label home Sub Pop, estimates that the duo has been punching the clock "seven days a week for over a year."
But at least that effort is paying off: FOTC's Sub Pop debut, an EP called "The Distant Future," entered Billboard's Top Comedy Albums chart in the pole position and started in the No. 2 spot on the Top Heatseekers tally.
Kiewel says the EP was meant to be a "teaser" for a full-length originally due in the fall, but the duo's busy schedule -- which of late has mostly revolved around their eponymous HBO series -- put the album's release on ice until January 2008.
"The HBO series has been quite difficult," says Clement. "We spent five months writing it, mostly ourselves, and we were on a pretty tight deadline. I mean, I've never done anything like this before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed like an unreasonable amount of time to make 12 episodes of television."
Besides the challenge of turning mostly pre-existing FOTC songs into fleshed-out plots for the series, Clement only half-jokes that much of the filming was "like NASA training. We filmed the pilot last summer and it was over 100 degrees. We did the shoot in an apartment and had to turn off the AC and block the windows with blankets for sound, and we're in a room with over 40 people surrounded by bright lights. Awesome."
Shooting for the other episodes began this past winter, and Clement laughs that this time they started "during the coldest week of the year, and of course we had to be outside a lot -- it was for an episode where we get mugged, so there we are freezing our asses off running down the street."
The full-length album, due in January, will consist of songs from the soundtrack for the HBO series, but Clement says he and McKenzie are adding flourishes to the tracks. "The songs were done in a hurry for the show, so we're going to go in and do some remixing and just work on them a bit."
Kiewel adds that the album, like the EP, will include HBO branding. "HBO has very much been our partner, especially on the creative/marketing side. For instance, they sent out an announcement to their email list for the EP release. It's been great working with them."
When the album is done, Clement and McKenzie would like to go back to "part-time" with the project, but realize it's not likely. "There's a lot of pressure on us to write a second HBO series as quickly as possible -- probably to air next summer," Clement says.
And of course fans are clamoring to see the act live. Kiewel reveals that "tentatively, there will be a full round of touring once the album's out."
But the easy-going Clement admits to being a little baffled to find himself at the center of all this attention. "Sometimes I'm really surprised I ended up being a performer. In a lot of ways, I've got a job that doesn't suit me. I'm not a particularly social person or the life of the party, but somehow it's ended up that way."
Kiewel, however, says the demand that's been building for FOTC has a simple explanation: "They're ridiculously talented. I saw them in 2005 at the Bumbershoot festival and people were already screaming for their favorite songs, singing along to all the lyrics. Everything they do seems to be met with an amazing response."
And for those already familiar with much of the material that appeared in the HBO show, Clement promises that if FOTC commits to a second series, he and McKenzie will write new songs. "We're already thinking about new material."
Strait, Paisley lead CMA Award nominees
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - George Strait, who had his 55th No. 1 single this year and was recently inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame, was nominated Thursday for five Country Music Association Awards, including for entertainer and male vocalist of the year.
Strait tied Brad Paisley for the most nominations, and Paisley said he feels honored to share the spotlight this year with Strait, a Texan who debuted in 1981.
"Had he not existed, I don't know who I would be," Paisley said in a phone interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "He's one of the reasons I wear a cowboy hat."
Strait was also nominated for musical event of the year, for a performance with Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson; album of the year for "It Just Comes Natural"; and single of the year for "Wrapped," his 55th career No. 1 single.
Paisley's nominations included entertainer of the year and male vocalist. He also received nominations for his album "5th Gear," best single for "Ticks" and best music video with "Online."
The video centers on an out-of-shape pizza delivery driver, still living with his parents, who becomes a Hollywood hottie as soon as he hits the Web.
Paisley said the main character, played by "Seinfeld" star Jason Alexander, who also directed the video, is much more autobiographical than most people realize.
"I was a big `Star Trek' fan, not a star athlete (in high school)," Paisley said. "We all have moments in our life when we feel like outcasts."
Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban rounded out the entertainer of the year category. CMA industry members have nominated only male entertainers of the year since the Dixie Chicks got a nomination in 2001.
The Chicks, who have had a troubled relationship with the country music industry since Natalie Maines' derogatory comments about President Bush in 2003, got their first nomination since then for best vocal group.
Chesney earned four nominations, including male vocalist, music video for "You Save Me" and musical event of the year with Tracy Lawrence and Tim McGraw.
"I've known Tracy and Tim practically since I got to Nashville," Chesney said in a statement. "Those old boys struggled with me, took off before me and never forgot who their friends were."
Josh Turner joined Chesney, Paisley, Strait and Urban as nominees for male vocalist of the year.
Alison Krauss was nominated for female vocalist of the year, along with Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood.
The CMA Awards will be presented Nov. 7 in Nashville. The show will air on ABC.
Top nominations were announced in New York on ABC's "Good Morning America" by Sara Evans and Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland.
The rest were announced at Nashville's Sommet Center by duo Montgomery Gentry and 17-year-old Taylor Swift, who was nominated for the Horizon Award for new artists.
Montgomery Gentry, who were nominated for vocal duo, lauded Strait's career and said he was one of the hardest working entertainers in country music.
"He's the Energizer Bunny of country radio — he keeps going and going," said Eddie Montgomery.