Mitchell Joni – Live at Carnegie Hall (RSD BF 2026)

Joni Mitchell's Live At Carnegie Hall captures her second solo appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1972, at a moment when she was moving beyond the intimate world of Blue and introducing songs from the then-unreleased For the Roses. That setting matters: this is a historic snapshot of Mitchell alone onstage, with her songwriting and voice carrying the full room, and it is the first time this concert has been made available on vinyl after previously appearing in Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3.

The performance puts Mitchell's folk-rooted writing right at the centre, but it is hardly austere. You can hear how confidently she balances older favourites with newer material, moving from songs like “Blue” and “A Case of You” to “For the Roses” and “You Turn Me On I'm a Radio.” The appeal here is not just the setlist, but the sense of an artist testing fresh work in front of an attentive audience while still holding onto the emotional directness that made her early records so distinctive.

For anyone interested in Mitchell's early-70s run, this album fills in an important part of the picture. It documents a live document long valued by fans, now presented as a standalone release, and it underlines how fully formed her performances already were in this period: conversational, precise, and quietly commanding.

Features

• First time on vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Record Store Day Black Friday 2026 exclusive release

Reviews

• Both are spectacular, as standalone listening experiences and demonstrations of how far Mitchell’s music progressed in two short years. - Pitchfork