We’ve reached the end of The Road - the one that leads our host Carmel back home and to the finale of our special 10 episode series. It is also Joni Mitchell’s 81st birthday. From Newport Folk Festival 2022 to the Hollywood Bowl on October 19, 2024, we’ve watched the remarkable comeback of our SHERO, and in the past ten weeks, we’ve heard from a group of artists who shared their roads to Joni with so much love and reverence that it was rare to end a conversation without tears.

We set out on this journey not only to celebrate Joni Mitchell, but also to explore the immense power of music and community to heal, unite, inspire and crack us wide open… which this experience certainly did.

For this final episode, Carmel talks to 7x Emmy award winning journalist and senior culture and senior national correspondent for CBS News, Anthony Mason. He tells us about his decision to get to Newport when he heard that Joni was going to be there in 2022; and camping out in an Airbnb during the festival, hoping that he’d get “the call.” When that call came and he was summoned to rehearsals at an old church at Fort Adams State Park, the site of the Newport Folk Festival, he knew that his patience had paid off. Anthony got 15 minutes with Joni and with that, he secured the first televised interview with her since her aneurysm in 2015. Anthony says that the experience of seeing Joni perform at Newport 2022 was “everything we’ve waited for and so much more.”

FInally, we hear from a listener that Carmel met on night two of the Hollywood Bowl Joni Jam shows. Our new friend, Cory Reeder, is an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. The heartfelt story of his road to Joni leaves us, once again, in tears. He says that “Joni Mitchell is courage” and that “she is the hero that we need.” Cory says that he is forever grateful for living in this time of Joni. We can’t think of a better sentiment to end on.

It has been an honor and a privilege to have you on this journey with us.

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