Catherine McKay wrote:
>
>... I'd love to see/hear John Kelly
> - have he and Joni ever met? I'd love to hear what
> she had to say about him.
There's a recent article in the jmdl.com database about John Kelly. If
you do a text search on his name, it's the first one that pops up.
Interesting stuff in there about the East Village back then, too. Here
are a few paragraphs about John and Joni:
Mitchell has seen Kelly perform three times. A couple of years ago, when
she turned up at Fez, an eclectic venue beneath the trendy Time Cafe,
she laughed, she cried, she clapped, she sang. She would have bought the
T-shirt had Kelly been selling them.
"The whole place knew she was there at the back, so the electricity that
night was palpable. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. My
hands were shaking. It was very trippy and very difficult and,
ultimately, a great success."
Mitchell was full of admiration and encouragement for Kelly, giving him
a dulcimer that he now uses on A Case Of You.
----------
During the show he talked about the TNT Tribute, saying he had not been
invited to perform there (and had been doing a show then on Broadway),
but was asked to do some of Paved Paradise at the party held afterwards
at the China Club. He said no one was listening to him and that it was
hard to keep going when people were so scattered and noisy, and then he
looked up and saw Joni and Goldie Hawn standing four feet in front of
him. He had the dulcimer Joni had given him years before and at the
party she signed the back of it with a "Joni loves John" inside a big
heart. He held it up so we could see. It was big and in black marker and
there were lots of Joni swirls in it. All of us in the audience
"aahhhh"ed. It was sweet.
Debra Shea
