"Jen Does Joni" is an immersive musical experience that gives the ultimate backstage pass to the stories and songs of Joni Mitchell. You can almost smell the paint on Joni's brushes, taste the wine at the Mermaid Cafe and feel the California breeze through Laurel Canyon as Mize masterfully guides you through the life and art of this true icon.

“I was given my first two Joni Mitchell CD’s by a family friend (and music tragic) for Christmas in 1996.

It was two separate discs that had been recently released, “Hits” & “Misses”.  That gift truly changed my life. Up to that point, I was just another a musical theatre kid who loved the radio. I was known by my friends to be ‘That girl who sat by herself and sang along to the radio on the whole 45min bus ride to school’.

Songs had always felt like home to me but Joni’s songs felt like more than home, they felt like self-awareness, like enlightenment.  Hearing ‘A Case of You’ at 16yrs old, right at the moment you first fall in love, is like hearing someone read your strongest emotions out loud… feelings you couldn’t even begin to understand or interpret yourself.  It was like magic, to an introverted and cerebral teenage girl who felt so misunderstood.

It was years later that I started to take up songwriting and though I would never reach anything near her prowess, Joni’s writing would always be my high-water mark.

This is why I decided to start my podcast series and live performance combo with ‘Jen Does Joni’.  I wanted to do something that Joni wouldn’t find cringe-worthy.  I never envisioned it as a tribute show, I wanted a concert.  I once worked as a back-up singer for the most famous tribute show organization out of Las Vegas ‘Legends In Concert’, and although I enjoyed my time there, I would never make a ‘production show’ out of Joni’s work.

 So, I set out to learn some of Joni’s most noteworthy songs on the instruments she wrote or played them on, with the alternate tunings…no cheating.  I already played acoustic guitar and had experimented with alternate tunings with my own songwriting. Then in 2020 (with all that time on my side) I took up the Appalachian dulcimer, Piano and electric guitar all to try my best to do the songs of Joni Mitchell justice.

I did all of this while researching Joni as much as possible, learning the stories behind the songs, more about her life and art, watching every live performance, every interview. They say it’s dangerous to meet your heroes but the deeper I went the more amazing the legacy of this woman’s work became.

I challenge anyone to listen to even one episode of this podcast and not fall in love with the strength, integrity and insight of Joni Mitchell. 

- Jen Mize