Joni Mitchell made a surprise appearance for a full set Sunday at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, joining Brandi Carlile. Two ladies were joined by Blake Mills, Taylor Goldsmith, Marcus Mumford, Wynonna Judd, Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and others. Over 13 songs, Mitchell sat around on couches on-stage playing a mix of her favorite oldies ('Why Do Fools Fall in Love', 'Love Potion No. 9') as well as an array of her masterpieces. Rolling Stone reports from the fest.

“Becoming a household name has been complicated. Because you don’t get to choose the people you become a household name for” - country star Brandi Carlile tells in an interesting Spin interview. She looks into her as a star: “It’s really scary, because I’m so flawed. But I have all the same poor kid afflictions that anybody else does when they get a little bit of money or power. I’m bad with money. I make selfish decisions. I veer in and out of fucking messianic complexes and narcissistic behavior, so it would be easy to catch me up. But at some point, you have to accept and know that people are going to choose their own leaders, and I’m just going to continue to be myself. We can’t let it dampen our activism. We just have to keep powering forward, because we can’t do nothing”.

Sufjan Stevens says 'Sugar' is "about the desire for goodness and purity", and the hypnotics quality of the song makes a case for it; Amanda Ong is a singer-songwriter on the rise, her beautiful voice promises a lot - 'Leave Me Alone'; it's hardly a new song, but Brandi Carlile's version on 'Mad World' sang from the bottom of her lungs ads a new dimension to it; Slowthai's 'Feel Away' is, well, different - it's gentle and mellow, with a video of James Blake singing from rapper's uterus!; Death Valley Girls sing for love and joy on 'Under the Spell of Joy'; Small Bills is a new project, made of rapper Elucid and producer the Lasso, their first single 'Safehouse' goes from afro-beat to funk, from discomfort and uncertainty.

TV host Samantha Bee devoted an entire segment of her show 'Full Frontal' to the lack of women on country radio. Her journalists talked to artists Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker, Mickey Guyton, and Margo Price, with Carlile posting the essential thought: “Ask yourself this question, what do you want your daughter to know about herself? And if you can’t get that from country music or you can’t get that from country radio, it’s a problem”.

"Writing a song like that’s ['Tiny Dancer'] a bit like having a wank, really. You want the climax to be good, but you don’t want it to be over too quickly – you want to work your way up to it" - Elton John answered Bob Dylan in a Guardian interview. The song he wished […]