First, it was Paul McCartney.
Now, Joni Mitchell teams up with Starbuck's Hear Music record label...


from AP/Yahoo--


Starbucks label signs Joni Mitchell

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Entertainment Writer
Wed Jul 25, 1:18 AM ET

NEW YORK - Joni Mitchell is following the lead of Paul McCartney in joining with the coffee giant Starbucks to release her comeback album.

Hear Music, a record label formed in partnership with Starbucks Corp. and the Concord Music Group, said Wednesday that Mitchell is its second signing. "Shine," her first album of new compositions since 1998, will be released on Sept. 25.

McCartney's album "Memory Almost Full" came out last month and was played relentlessly at Starbucks franchises, where listeners could purchase it with their coffee. The disc has sold 447,000 copies, 45 percent of them in Starbucks stores, the company said.

The new venture has attracted interest from veteran artists both because the music business is collapsing around them, and their fans are much more likely to be spending time in Starbucks these days than in music stores.

Mitchell worked with Hear Music two years ago as it released a disc of favorite Mitchell songs selected by various artists. She had essentially retired from making music and said this project was one of the things that rekindled her interest, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.

Mitchell wrote nine of the 10 songs on "Shine," the exception being an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling poem "If."

She described it as "as serious a work as I've ever done" with some dark lyrics.

Earlier this year, Mitchell was co-director of "The Fiddle and the Drum," a ballet based on her music that debuted in Canada. She's also planning an exhibit of her paintings in New York this fall.

Hear Music expects to sign one more artist this year and eight in 2008, and is looking for a mixture of new and established artists, Lombard said.

One role model for a veteran artist adapting to rapidly changing times, Prince, recently gave away thousands of copies of his CD through a newspaper in England. Lombard said not to expect a Mitchell album offered for free to customers who buy a frozen latte.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_ ... s_mitchell

Joni Mitchell joins McCartney on Hear Music roster

Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:15AM EDT

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Joni Mitchell, who had been largely retired from the music business since 2002, has joined Paul McCartney on the roster of Starbucks Entertainment's Hear Music label. Mitchell's new album, "Shine," will be released September 25 through the coffee retailer's stores as well as traditional outlets.

Mitchell angrily threatened to quit recording after the release of 2002's "Travelogue," but her work with Starbucks on a 2005 "Artists Choice" compilation helped encourage her to not throw in the towel just yet.

"Joni acknowledged back in 2005 that not only was she very, very impressed with our commitment to music and our customers' love of music, but that (the compilation) really helped to re-energize her passion for music," Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard told Billboard.com "As we continue to have discussions with respect to this new CD, it is obvious to us that she's back, in a big way."

In fact, it was Mitchell who reached out to Starbucks when she was nearing completion on "Shine." "Frankly, for Joni fans, this is the Joni they've been waiting for," Lombard said. "This is true Joni -- it is almost the return of her as a storyteller."

"Shine" includes nine new songs as well as a new version of Mitchell's evergreen, "Big Yellow Taxi." The album is part of a series of new work from the singer/songwriter, including a ballet based on her music, "The Fiddle and the Drum," and a visual art exhibit that opens in the fall in New York.

Hear Music launched in June with the release of McCartney's "Memory Almost Full," which has already sold 448,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Reuters/Billboard

http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNew ... 4420070725

track list:

got it at the hoffia!

Track Listing

1. One Week Last Summer

2. This Place

3. If I Had a Heart

4. Hana

5. Bad Dreams are Good

6. Big Yellow Taxi

7. Night of the Iguana

8. Strong and Wrong

9. Shine

10. If

"if" is based on rudyard kipling poem, hmm.

now, let's try to find out who plays on it, i hope its the usual suspects!

renny

It's from this link:

http://www.jonimitchell.com/news/index.cfm

"Hana," huh? Hmmm. I wonder if she's talking about the town in Maui, Hawaii. If so, there will be *two* songs about Hawaii on the album! ("Big Yellow Taxi" was written while she stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which is the "pink hotel" in the song.)

How many times is she gonna record "Big Yellow Taxi"? Nothing like reliving past glories.

This duplicates some of the info Steve posted above, but it includes a brief interview with Joni herself:

http://www.nme.com/news/joni-mitchell/29920

>> Joni Mitchell reveals new album details

25.Jul.07 8:59pm

Joni Mitchell has revealed details of her forthcoming album 'Shine'.

As previously reported, Mitchell's new album will be released on September 25 in the US and Canada and on September 24 in the rest of the world on the new Starbucks label, Hear Music.

'Shine' contains 10 tracks that were written, arranged and produced by Mitchell. The songtress said in a statement that it is "as serious a work as I've ever done".

She added, "I am thrilled to be able to work with the Hear Music label on my new CD," said Mitchell. "Starbucks and Concord Music Group are joining me in releasing a project which has enabled me to appreciate what I loved about making music in the first place. I am very grateful to them."

Two songs on the new album - 'If' and 'If I Had A Heart' -- appeared in 'The Fiddle And The Drum', a ballet based on Mitchell's songs that premiered earlier this year. Mitchell said she was inspired to write the song 'If' by her favourite Rudyard Kipling poem.

The album tracklisting is:

'One Week Last Summer'
'This Place'
'If I Had a Heart'
'Hana'
'Bad Dreams Are Good'
'Big Yellow Taxi'
'Night of the Iguana'
'Strong and Wrong'
'Shine' <<

I heard Starbucks had to pave paradise to put up a parking lot for their new store...where Joni's new CD will be sold.

you are correct, and they cut down all the trees and put them in a tree museum.

Of course, Starbucks being Starbucks, they're gonna charge the people a lot more than a dollar and a half just to see 'em!

Starbucks will charge list price, but like McCartney I'm sure this will be available also at retail. Wonder if the Starbucks in store version will have any bonus tracks?

I still want the expanded 2 cd versions of her 70's work!

Yep!



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UR366S/?tag=imwan-20

This is coming out on Tuesday so let's update some info ~ first of all here's the full cover art without that awful "Starbucks title ribbon" seen above:



A short review from the Amazon website:

>> Shine may ultimately register as a "fans only" milestone, but it proves that Joni Mitchell retains many of the storied calling cards of her best albums. The searing lyricism of 1971's Blue and the penchant for self-redefinition hailed by 1974's Court and Spark make cameos here, but sadly, lesser efforts' drawbacks abound. True, "Big Yellow Taxi" reprises the environmental dystopia Mitchell first poeticized on 1970's Ladies of the Canyon, but the occasion only prompts new pedantic effrontery ("This Place," "If I Had a Heart"). In this regard, Shine's especially cloying title track marks the worst offender. Blissfully, though, "Hana" boasts a driving rhythm section and blurting squirts of electric guitar and saxophone in support of a compelling character sketch, and "If"--based on Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name--paints a lyrical message of affirmation in bold strokes. Mitchell's songwriting shines brightest at such singularly poignant moments where specificity of images meets the vagaries of the instrumental arrangements, and, in the end, these and other highlights ("Bad Dreams," "Night of the Iguana") definitively carry the torch. <<

Amazon also now has audio clips of all the songs on the album:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UR366S/?tag=imwan-20

I've been listening to this album. It's quite good. The instrumental that opens the cd is gorgeous; probably her best song in 20 years or so.