Experience Joni Mitchell's Music Live with The Joni Project

NORTHAMPTON — To quote the lyrics “Help me, I think I’m fallin’ in love again” from Joni Mitchell’s only Top 10 hit, “Help Me,” audiences will be “fallin’” in love again with the Canadian singer and songwriter on Sunday during a performance by The Joni Project tribute band at the Iron Horse Music Hall. Showtime is 2 p.m. The band is fronted by Long Island multi-instrumentalist and singer Katie Pearlman and also includes jazz and jam band mainstays Dave Berg on guitar, Dan Ehrlich on bass, Alan Lerner on drums, Mark Mancini on keyboards, Steve Finklestein on percussion, Premik Russell Tubbs on saxophone and flute, and Victoria Faiella providing backing vocals. It all started 12 years ago with a call from Joe Galant who Pearlman called “a great bass player.” “Joe called to ask me to sing Joni’s song ‘Coyote’ at a concert at the Highline Ballroom in New York City where he was appearing with the Rev Tor Band who were doing their ‘Last Waltz Live’ show. Another great musician, Godfrey Townsend, came up to me after the concert and said, ‘You should really do this.’ It took off from there and before I knew it the group, which started with Joe and drummer Alan Lerner who also played ‘Last Waltz Live’, expanded to eight people,” Pearlman said. “Everyone came together easily. Trying to get eight people together when they are coming from New York State, Connecticut and New Jersey might seem difficult. But when a call comes in for a gig and I put out calls, most of the time everyone is in, despite the fact they all do other things than just the Joni Project,” she added. It was one of Pearlman’s brothers who introduced her to the music of Joni Mitchell. “My older brother gave me Joni’s ‘Shadows and Light’ album and I thought it was pretty great, and I later added several others to my collection. I was doing an acoustic set at a coffeehouse where I was playing my originals but added in Joni’s ‘Help Me’ at the end and people told me they loved it. I was doing another show and someone sent me an email about how touched he was by my rendition. Every time I had done her music it touched people, and so it is nice today to be able to do this with the Joni Project because audiences react to this music and it means a lot to them,” Pearlman said. Pearlman noted there are challenges in recreating Mitchell’s iconic sound and vocals, including playing the guitar as she did. “Joni is an incredible vocalist. Even though her voice is now much lower, she had this birdsong of a voice and it is a challenge to sing that high and have the breath control she did in holding those notes,” Pearlman said, adding that she performs the songs in their original guitar tunings using a process known as “open tuning.” “Open tuning is a big challenge because the finger patterns are not what standard guitarists use, but it is the way to get those unique tones she got on her records and during live performances. I also use some of the same guitars she used like Ibanez and Martin,” she said. Born as Roberta Joan Anderson in Alberta, Canada, in 1943, Mitchell was stricken with polio at age 9 and taught herself to play guitar and sing while in the hospital. She went on to become one of the most influential singers and songwriters of her generation, lauded for her contributions to the folk genre but also drawing from pop, rock, classical and jazz. Since her debut album in 1968, she has recorded some 19 albums including “Blue,” “Hejira” and “Court and Spark.” A 2021 Kennedy Center honoree, Mitchell has earned multiple Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and has been honored with a JUNO Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other accolades. After suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015, doctors were amazed by her ability, albeit slow, to regain her singing and guitar-playing skills, but her live performances today are rare.