There is a reason you don’t hear about many Joni Mitchell tribute bands cropping up.
“Joni’s material is incredibly challenging. She is not a three-chord blues player, and her level of musicianship is a high bar to meet. What she does is intricate and involved… she is a musical genius. And just looking at her lyrics and the way she sings her melodies are very challenging,” said Teresa Lorenco, of Big Yellow Taxi, a tribute band playing at 52 Sumner on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Showtime is 7 p.m.
Lorenco noted the real key to capturing the essence of Mitchell is mastering her emotionality.
“When her album ‘Blue’ was released, no one had done a musical offering bearing their soul like she did, and that got her noticed. ‘Blue’ was a big hit, although she had already been writing hit songs for other artists. When she put out ‘Blue,’ it blew people away in how willing she was to open herself up to others in an extremely vulnerable way through her music,” she said.
While some tribute bands pride themselves on capturing the looks of the band or singer they are portraying, Lorenco said that Big Yellow Taxi has its own niche.
“I can proudly say that I am able to catch the emotion of her lyrics. We can tell our audiences are moved by not only our musicianship, but the fact I have been blessed with the pipes to sing in a way that gives our audiences that sense of emotion in her music… that is what they connect with. It’s not just singing her songs, but singing her feelings,” she said.
Founded by Lorenco in 2020, Big Yellow Taxi was formed in response to a couple of concerns of the longtime Joni Mitchell fan.
“Joni suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 and at first there was concern that she might not make it through the health crisis. I was upset and very nervous about her return to performing and of 2020 she still hadn’t performed live (Mitchell would go on to surprise a crowd attending the Newport Folk Festival with her first public performance after the debilitating aneurysm) and I knew that we had to do something at that point. So, I checked the internet to find any tribute bands and noticed there were not many. So, I got a band together and we called ourselves Big Yellow Taxi,” Lorenco said.
“I wanted to call the band The Joni Project, which another tribute band now calls themselves, but it was felt that the name wasn’t that recognizable and we eventually went with something that was. So we chose one of her memorable songs that rolls off the tongue – ‘Big Yellow Taxi,’” she added.
In addition to Lorenco, Big Yellow Taxi consists of Candy Green on backup vocals and percussion; John Caban on guitar; former Northampton Mayor Richard Cahillane on bass and dulcimer; Joe Fitzpatrick on drums; and Robert Sherwood on keyboards and vocals.
Mitchell, considered one of the most influential female recording artists and composers of the late 20th century, was born Roberta Joan Anderson in Alberta, Canada, on Nov 7, 1943. She began playing piano at a young age and later learned guitar before becoming one of the foremost folk artists of our time. Known for her songs “Both Sides Now,” “Woodstock,” and “Big Yellow Taxi,” among a host of others, Mitchell would eventually explore jazz to great success in the 1970s. Today Mitchell has some 19 studio albums and eight Grammy awards and is the recipient of Billboard’s Century Award for her tremendously popular creative achievements over the years. She has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
52 Sumner – Springfield Performing Arts Ventures, Inc. – is located on 52 Sumner Ave. in Springfield. For more information and tickets, priced at $20, visit 52sumner.com
