Joni Mitchell announces next archival project, ‘The Asylum Years’

Joni Mitchell has announced the third volume of her ongoing archival project. ‘The Asylum Years’ will come out in October.

The new archival series was announced in 2020, and its first edition, ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963 – 1967)’, landed that same year.

After the release of ‘Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)’ in 2021, Mitchell has now announced ‘Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)’.

The album, out on October 6 via Rhino, will feature rarities, unheard tracks and more from three Mitchell albums: 1972’s ‘For The Roses’, 1974’s ‘Court And Spark’ and 1975’s ‘The Hissing Of Summer Lawns’.

To preview the album, a new demo version of ‘Help Me’ is streaming now, and you can listen to it below.

Last month, Mitchell released a live album of her 2022 comeback gig at the Newport Folk Festival. Last July, Mitchell performed a surprise set at the legendary music festival – which she last appeared at in 1969 – delivering a 13-song “JONI JAM” set that featured Brandi Carlile on the tracks ‘Carey’, ‘A Case Of You’ and ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.

During the show, she played a host of classics from across her career, including a version of ‘A Case Of You’ with Brandi Carlile and Marcus Mumford.

Earlier this summer, Joni Mitchell played her first full headline show in over 20 years at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state.

At the show, like the Newport performance, Mitchell played with Carlile and a group of collaborators including Mumford, delivering a 24-song set of tracks from across her career and a few covers.

Opening with ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, she then played favourites from her iconic LP ‘Blue’ including ‘A Case Of You’, ‘Carey’, as well as a cover of George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ and more.

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