PODCAST

Big Yellow Podcast

Allison Rapp

Exploring the life and work of Joni Mitchell. allisonrapp.substack.com

music music interviews

All Episodes

13:26

Joni Mitchell's 'For the Roses'

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/12/18

Here you’ll find a brief history and exploration of Joni Mitchell’s 1972 release For the Roses, an album that speaks to both the fragility of humans and their resilience.I’d like to dedicate this episode, the last one I’ll publish in 2024, to David Yaffe, whom we recently lost. He was the author of the 2015 biography of Joni, Reckless Daughter, but he was also a friend and one of the first people in this industry to look at my writing and encourage me to keep digging, to tell me that what I was

51:17

A Conversation With Bill Frisell

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/12/11

This is a historic moment for Big Yellow Podcast. This week’s episode marks the very first to have been recorded between myself and the subject in person, and it’s with none other than legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.I first learned of Bill through my high school boyfriend (shoutout to Will who ended up an incredibly talented jazz guitarist of his own), and have interviewed him a handful of times over the years. (If you’d like to read those, here they are: Gentle Guitar Giant: Bill Frisell Is

10:24

Joni's Journey of Motherhood

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/11/20

In which I briefly walk through Joni’s experience becoming a mother at a young age, giving her daughter up for adoption and eventually reuniting with her decades later.Thanks for listening x* Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

31:57

A Conversation With Becca Stevens

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/11/13

Becca Stevens has been a musician pretty much her entire life. She grew up in a musical family — her mom was a singer and her dad a composer — and not only did she play in bands growing up, but she went on to study music at the professional level. Joni has been, in Becca’s words, a songwriting mom, someone she’s looked up to from various angles and at various points in her life. Things really came full circle when she started working with one of Joni’s longest and biggest champions, David

39:50

A Conversation With Gord Sinclair of the Tragically Hip

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/10/30

If you know me, you know that a significant chunk of my musical DNA involves the Tragically Hip, one of the single most successful acts to come out of Canada.Being from Buffalo, their music was on constant rotation — not just in my dad’s car and our stereo but at bars and sporting games around town. I have one of their album covers tattooed on my left thigh. I’ve stopped by some of the venues they played in their early days in Toronto. And I was fortunate enough to see them on their very last tour

16:11

Joni Mitchell's 'Blue'

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/10/23

Well, if you know you know. In which I discuss the 1971 album that changed a lot of women’s lives, a lot of songwriter’s lives and probably drove a bunch of people to the bottle. Thanks for listening x* Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

34:15

A Conversation With Sue Tierney

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/10/16

For those of you who haven’t spent hours upon hours of your life on the official Joni Mitchell website like I have, you may not know that there is an entire section dedicated to various Joni song tabs transcribed for guitar, piano, bass and more — even dulcimer. Those transcriptions are there thanks to the (volunteer!) work of people like Sue Tierney, who have been figuring out Joni’s songs for years and helping them to end up on the internet for all to learn from. I recently caught up with Sue, a

12:26

Joni Mitchell's Fashion

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/10/09

In which I trace Joni’s style evolution from Mod It Girl to Hippie Queen to Sophisticated Lounge Singer. Thanks for listening x* Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

50:02

A Conversation With Seth Rogovoy

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/10/02

The first time I met writer and author Seth Rogovoy was in the spring of 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we were both attending the grand opening weekend of the Bob Dylan Center. As luck would have it, we both separately had decided it was perfectly okay to walk to Leon Russell’s Church Studios on the outskirts of town for an event. No big deal for North-easterners like ourselves, but as it turns out, Tulsa is not the kind place in which you can walk to everything…long story short: we made the trek

40:36

A Conversation With David Hajdu

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/09/18

To begin, my apologies for the lesser-quality audio in this episode — I was forced to use my backup recording on account of only traveling with one laptop, the one that did not have the better audio on it…But if you can hopefully look past that, you’ll find a lovely conversation I had with David Hajdu, the acclaimed author, writer, and self-proclaimed Joni fanatic. Here we talk about Joni’s place in the West Village, his own run-in with her at a jazz club in NYC and more.If you haven’t read David’s

40:03

A Conversation With David Browne

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/09/11

My guest today is someone I’ve spent time in court with several months ago.I was with David Browne and fortunately neither one of us was in legal trouble. We were both there in a stuffy NYC criminal courtroom covering the then-ongoing trial involving Don Henley and some allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics, he for Rolling Stone and I for Ultimate Classic Rock. That case ended up being dropped…But I digress! I actually met David in person for the first time before that at the Bitter End, one of the West

8:47

Joni Mitchell's Guitar Tunings

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/09/04

I am by no means a professional guitarist — I’ve dabbled since I was a kid, but my skills don’t really stretch much beyond basic chords. However, to speak about Joni Mitchell’s music and not acknowledge her approach to guitar playing, and more specifically her famous way of utilizing unique tunings, would be an oversight. In today’s brief episode, I explore this topic as a novice guitarist, one who has struggled to play many of Joni’s songs thanks to their eccentric tunings. Thanks for listening x*

50:15

A Conversation With Tyrell Lisson

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/08/28

I first got to know Tyrell Lisson when he invited me on his own podcast, the excellently informed The Band: A History. It should go without saying that if you’re a fan of Canadian musicians — which you likely are since you’re subscribed to a program about Joni Mitchell — Tyrell’s show is definitely one you’ll want to check out.Besides being an expert on the Band, whom Joni worked with a couple of times over the course of their respective careers, Tyrell is also a musician himself based in Toronto,

15:04

Joni Mitchell's 'Ladies of the Canyon'

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/08/21

Just a few months after winning her first Grammy, Joni Mitchell released 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon, which illustrated both her enchantment with her new, glamorous life in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and her mild disillusionment with her growing fame. Oh, and she’s got a new boyfriend in the mix, a one Graham Nash…Thanks for listening x* Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

40:09

A Conversation With Emm Gryner

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/08/14

If there’s one thing I love, it’s becoming friends with a Canadian. I first got connected with singer-songwriter Emm Gryner when she sent me a copy of her book, The Healing Power of Singing: Raise Your Voice, Change Your Life. Over the next couple years, I got to know Emm a bit more — you might recognize her name from David Bowie’s band, which she was a part of in the 2000s, but she’s also got an incredible resume of solo material under her belt — and am so honored that she agreed to come on the

12:37

Joni as a Dancer, Fashionista and Painter

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/08/07

Music was not Joni’s first love. Here’s what else she took up in her early days and mostly never let go of.Thanks for listening x Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

46:28

A Conversation With Annie Zaleski

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/07/31

A conversation with writer and author Annie Zaleski (Salon, The Guardian, NPR) Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

13:58

Joni Mitchell's 'Clouds'

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/07/24

On May 1, 1969, Joni Mitchell released her nearly entirely self-produced sophomore album, ‘Clouds.’ Here are the basics about it…Thanks for listening x* Allison Get full access to Big Yellow Podcast at allisonrapp.substack.com/subscribe

42:41

A Conversation With Paul Myers

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/07/10

Like others who have been on this show so far, Paul Myers is someone I’ve never met in person, but somehow I felt a kinship with him when we spoke, perhaps because of his roots in Toronto, which I grew up right across the border from in Buffalo.Throughout his career, Paul has done a little bit of everything: record making, writing, radio hosting, podcasting, etc. Which to me meant I needed to bring my A-game when interviewing him for this episode. Fortunately, another truth about Paul, like many

61:39

A Conversation With Laura Tenschert

Big Yellow Podcast ·

2024/06/26

If you’re part of the online Bob Dylan community — yes, that’s very much a thing and it’s made up of many wonderful people — then you likely know Laura Tenschert’s name. She’s the host of the Definitely Dylan podcast series, which she started as a radio program several years ago. Laura is also, as it turns out, a fellow Joni fan, whose music she fell in love with before Dylan’s. The history between Dylan and Joni stretches back decades and displays…the spectrum of artistic connection. Competition,

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