Meet the 2027 Counselors

Jonatha Brooke

Merging evocative folk, melodic pop and an edgier roots rock sensibility, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jonatha Brooke began releasing music in the early 1990s, first as a member of the duo the Story and more enduringly as a solo artist. After four major label releases, she started her own independent label, Bad Dog Records in 1999, and has since released ten more albums - including the companion CD to her critically acclaimed, one woman, Off-Broadway musical, My Mother Has Four Noses.

Jonatha has co-written and/or produced songs with Katy Perry, The Courtyard Hounds, and Jessica Simpson. She's also written for four Disney films, numerous television shows, and she composed and performed the theme song for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.

Jonatha teaches online and in person Master Classes in songwriting and recording. She is working on three musical projects - Quadroon, with the late, legendary jazz pianist/composer Joe Sample; Switched with playwright Geoffrey Nauffts; and TEMPUS with Jaclyn Backhaus.
Jonatha was the recipient of a McKnight Artist Fellowship Grant in 2018. She won the 2019 International Acoustic Music Award for Best Female Artist for her song “Put the Gun Down,” and was the competition’s overall grand prize winner. And in 2020, she was awarded an Independent Music Award (IMA) for her EP, "Imposter.”
Throughout the pandemic, Ms. Brooke performed weekly Live Stream concerts from her home on Facebook and YouTube - “The Kitchen Covid Concerts” - all archived on her YouTube page.
Her 14th record, The Sweetwater Sessions, was released July 10, 2020.

Susan Werner

Singer-songwriter Susan Werner may be one of the most ambitious and versatile artists on the acoustic circuit. From her concept albums in a dizzying array of styles, her score for Bull Durham, The Musical (based on the MGM film), to her killer live shows, she’s a veritable Swiss Army Knife of talents. With covers by artists as varied as Tom Jones, Shemekia Copeland and Michael Feinstein, her compositions range from the reverent to the hard-rocking, and her formidable keyboard chops early on earned her a guest spot on Marian McPartland’s NPR Piano Jazz. Add a stand up comedian’s wit and timing, and you begin to get an idea why Susan Werner is one of the most in demand performers working today.

Singer-songwriter Susan Werner enjoys a reputation coast to coast as one of the most daring musical forces on the acoustic circuit. Her shows combine virtuosic talent with a stand-up comic’s sense of timing, and are widely regarded as among the most entertaining solo shows in the business.
Werner first learned guitar at the age of five, and says, “That was it, that was the key to the universe. I was lucky in that early on I knew exactly what I wanted to do with myself in the world. I wanted to play music.” With professional level rock and jazz chops on guitar and piano (she was a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR Piano Jazz), as well as a master’s degree in voice performance, she delivers live performances that electrify any room.
In her songs, Werner draws on a dizzying array of styles, from New Orleans piano to Texas roadhouse to gospel and even Cuban traditional “son.” Werner says, “What seems to happen is every two years or so, I become totally enamored with a given style of music, and I set out to learn how to play it. It’s a romance, really, of sorts, in that you kind of fumble your way towards something, and, if you do it right, you wind up with songs that surprise you and everybody else, too.” These “romances,” as she calls them, have produced numerous concept albums that have made her a favorite of NPR, Folk Alliance International and the annual Cayamo Songwriter’s Cruise. Her tunes have been covered by artists such as Tom Jones, Shemekia Copeland and Michael Feinstein, among others.
Her concept albums drew the attention of the producer of Bull Durham, The Musical (based on the MGM film), who engaged her as composer and lyricist. As Werner puts it, “What is a musical score, really, but just a big concept album?” The show and score has been produced in Atlanta, Durham NC and Millburn NJ in its ongoing development for Broadway, with Werner’s writing praised by the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But it is in live performance that one really gets the sense of Werner’s singular talent. She honed her onstage chops as support for headline artists from Keb’ Mo’ and Ani DiFranco to George Carlin, and it's her ability to connect in the concert hall that sets her apart among her peers. “There’s a lot of things I can’t do anything about out there, but I can, hopefully, send you out the door feeling better than when you walked in,” Werner says. Sellout audiences coast to coast testify to Werner’s remarkable and continued success achieving exactly that.

Chuck Mitchell

Born Charles Scott Mitchell in New York City, he grew up in farm country north of Detroit. He thought of becoming a forest ranger like Aldo Leopold. Instead, he graduated from college with a degree in English and drama.

After a brief time pursuing but not capturing an acting career in New York, Mitchell was drafted into the US Army, where he learned to drive a tank and use an assortment of weapons. Then he spent a peaceful year in Korea as a reporter for Stars & Stripes and as a hoofer in musical comedy reviews, entertaining the troops.

Mitchell returned to Detroit and became a writer for the Great Cities project, a public school experiment bankrolled by the Ford Foundation to develop programs for educating "culturally deprived" children. A program called Head Start was one.
Mitchell started singing in Detroit folk clubs and saloons, and left his writing job in 1965. In Toronto, on his first out of town gig, he met Canadian songwriter Joni Anderson from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They married, and as a duo Chuck and Joni Mitchell played the coffeehouse circuit and gin rummy until they divorced in 1968.
The folk clubs faded, and Mitchell moved on to college and arts council residencies. He has lived in Coconut Grove, Florida, Santa Monica, California, and Greeley, Colorado. In the eighties, he gravitated back to the middle west, and bought a tall brick house built by a riverboat captain in 1879 overlooking the Mississippi River in Iowa.
Mitchell's credits include A Prairie Home Companion, and repertory theatre in Texas and England. He has played Harold Hill in The Music Man, and Woody Guthrie in Woody Guthrie's American Song. Most recently, he wrote and produced Mr. Foster & Mr. Twain, in which Stephen Foster joins Mark Twain for an evening of story and song.
Chuck Mitchell's one-man show combines his seasoned skills as an actor, singer and guitarist with a selection of delightful material. He sings cabaret songs by Brecht and Weil -- "Mack the Knife" and "The Bilbao Song" -- and whimsical songs by Flanders & Swann -- "The Gnu" and "Have Some Madeira, M'dear". He roves the room singing "Freeborn Man" by Ewan McColl, or "Necessity" from Finian's Rainbow. He weaves poetry by Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot into his shows.
He has been called a renaissance man, and thinks he is old enough to be one.

Mutts of the Planet

“Robin Adler and Dave Blackburn have devoted the past 20 years to exploring the music of Joni Mitchell through its many phases. Under the moniker Mutts of the Planet, they have performed at many ‘JoniFests’ around the world and become active contributors to the Joni Mitchell Discussion Group (the JMDL), forging strong and lasting friendships with other members. The legendary JoniFests at The Full Moon in the late 1990s will come full circle, thirty years later, with the 2027 gathering.”

Since 2006, vocalist Robin Adler and guitarist Dave Blackburn have led their band Mutts of the Planet, performing a show based entirely around the music of the artist’s artist, Joni Mitchell. Mitchell’s long and multi-directional career has provided fertile ground for the Mutts to perform fascinating shows that draw from all of Joni Mitchell’s artistic periods. In addition to the songs themselves, they often discuss the backstories behind them, which is always popular with audiences.
Robin Adler is a highly respected jazz vocalist with many years of voice training, which allows her to sing Joni’s music in both the youthful higher keys of the early material and the darker “smokier” keys of the later work.
Dave Blackburn, Robin’s husband, grew up in the UK and has been a lifelong guitarist, drummer, recording engineer/producer, and music teacher. He made his home in San Diego in 1981 and has developed a guitar style that is admired among his peers.
Together, they present the artistry and breadth of one of the twentieth century’s greatest Songwriters. Their concert Youtubes have garnered effusive praise from Joni fans who normally avoid “tribute” efforts.

Dreamland ft. Kimberly Ford

A Celebration of Joni Mitchell

Kimberly Ford singing and playing acoustic guitar with Dreamland

A Celebration of Joni Mitchell featuring Kimberly Ford is a rocking tribute to the most iconic singer-songwriter of the Woodstock generation. Mitchell touched millions with her nearly 40-year career that spanned genres from contemporary folk to jazz to full-throated pop-rock. This incredible seven-piece band, modeled on Joni’s tenure with Tom Scott & the L.A. Express, plays all your favorite tunes, like Help Me, Both Sides Now, Conversation, Blue, River, All I Want, Free Man in Paris, Carey and, of course, Woodstock. The band also throws in a few you might not have heard before ...

COJM has been packing houses throughout Southern and Northern California and the Southwest since 2014. Significant performances include the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, Yoshi’s Oakland, Olivas Adobe in Ventura, Palms Playhouse in Winters and Grand Annex in San Pedro. In 2020, the band mounts its first East Coast tour with a stop at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Die-hard fans can’t get enough (and often sing along) and critics have noticed. “No singer on the West Coast is paying more scrupulous attention to Mitchell’s wondrous book than Santa Barbara’s Kimberly Ford,” writes Bay Area journalist Andy Gilbert, noting her “bright and flexible soprano that effortlessly rises into Mitchell’s upper range.”
Ford and her band bring a new verve to all of Joni’s favored genres. Not content to be a paint-by-numbers tribute band, COJM infuses Mitchell’s songs with new life while paying deep respect to a revered icon and poet laureate of her generation’s songwriters.
Joni’s absence from performing has only whetted appetites for COJM since the band’s birth six years ago. Founding drummer Charles Levin approached Ford with the idea after hearing her sing on gig at a private party. Two weeks later, he emailed Ford to see if she was game for a Joni-centric band. The answer was a resounding yes! In short time, Ford and Levin assembled a crew of the area’s best-known musicians to take on the project.

Lauren and the Good Souls

“It is a humbling experience to be invited to play at Jonifest. Performing at an event that brings together music, friendship, and a shared admiration for one of the greatest artists of all time is truly an honor. Ken and I have been performing Joni Mitchell tribute shows with our band, Lauren and the Good Souls, for the past ten years, and we are excited to share our love of her music with all of you.”

Lauren and The Good Souls came together initially, in tribute to the amazingly talented Joni Mitchell. Each member of Lauren and The Good Souls is a multi-instrumentalist, making their ability to write original music and cover an expansive repertoire, a reality. The Good Souls are proud to have strong women representation in the band. From the intimate acoustic moments, horn section swells, tight harmonies and orchestral arrangements, this band can cover it all. Individually, each band member has an extensive and impressive resume, and together they have created something truly special. Lauren has been featured on several podcasts and radio stations including, WRUR - Open Tunings, WRUR - Connections, WRUR - The Route, 95.1 - Brother Wease Show, 106.3 Shaking up Rochester, Carnival of Randomness Podcast and Big Yellow Podcast with Allison Rapp. Lauren has also played with the Legends of the JMDL (Joni Mitchell Discussion List) at the legendary Riot House in West Hollywood.

The JMDL Allstars

Buggy Jive

“t's been two decades too long since the last gathering, so I truly can't wait to be back at the Full Moon to join with the freaks and soldiers of this family to celebrate Queen Joni. It's a joy to be part of a community of folks with an encyclopedic knowledge of her canon, and heart and soul and reverence for her art to match. And lotsa laughs, lotsa laughs. We've got to get ourselves back to this garden.”
Sue Tierney

“The first time I attended a Jonifest was in 2004 when I went to the Full Moon Resort near Woodstock with my friend, singer songwriter, Patti Witten. We were both huge Joni Mitchell fans and had both been members of the Joni Mitchell Discussion List, which hosted the event. I was a little apprehensive because I had never met the people who I corresponded with every day but when I arrived, I felt like I was meeting my best friends!”
Eniid

“Joni Mitchell saved my life quite literally. I was a teenager in foster care, deeply depressed and suicidal when I bought her Blue album in a bargin bin. I popped it into my tape cassette player & my entire world changed ~ I was filled with elation and chills from head to toe. I thought to myself I can do this thing called life if I get to have Joni's music as my soundtrack. At 18 I carried her songbook across Europe in my backpack while hitchhiking, I taped back up that same book after my abusive husband tore it up and to this day I have a tattered Joni song book I practise her songs from daily. Sometimes I pinch myself knowing how lucky I am to share the joy her music brought to me so many years ago with others at JoniFests and other venues across the world.”
Jenny Goodspeed and Friends

“Anyone who was at a Full Moon Jonifest's in the early 2000s will agree: there's nothing quite like a big, blissful gathering of kindred spirits celebrating Joni's music in a gorgeous setting. Now we get to do it again? Sounds too good to be true! We can't wait to see old friends, make new ones, and share in the creativity and connections that Joni continues to inspire.”
Richard Flynn

“I attended many Jonifests at Full Moon resort. The first time, I met my friend Jody in New Hampshire and we drove to Full Moon, through beautiful mountain passes, and camped in the field. I have so many memories of performances, meals in the dining hall, playing scrabble outside, late night jams that went into the early morning. Lots of laiughter, all coming from a mutual love and deep admiration for everything Joni.”
Peg Talbot-Lane

Peg Talbott-Lane is a Philadelphia-area vocalist, producer, and longtime Joni Mitchell fan. With her band, Love City Music Collective, she produced and sang lead in the sold-out Reckless Daughter shows celebrating Joni’s music. Peg currently sings in specialty shows with Candy Volcano and Cabinet of Curiosities. She’s thrilled to be part of JoniFest in May 2027 and to reconnect in New York with the friends and fellow Joni fans of the Joni Mitchell Discussion List (JMDL).
Barbara Ann Little

“Returning to the Jonifest mothership — Full Moon Resort — feels like coming home to the place that deepened and cemented my connection to the Jonifest community. So many lifelong memories have been made there. Musical explorations have taken flight, friendships have flourished, and the joy of connecting with like-minded artists from all corners of the world has created something truly extraordinary — an experience that simply cannot be duplicated. In May 2027, we’ll gather once again to celebrate the music, the magic, the friendships, and the extraordinary spirit that make Jonifest so special. 🌕 JONIFEST 2027 — Here we come! 🎶”
Victor Johnson

“I attended many Jonifests at Full Moon resort. The first time, I met my friend Jody in New Hampshire and we drove to Full Moon, through beautiful mountain passes, and camped in the field. I have so many memories of performances, meals in the dining hall, playing scrabble outside, late night jams that went into the early morning. Lots of laiughter, all coming from a mutual love and deep admiration for everything Joni.”
Michael Williams

“My first JoniFest was held in conjunction with her performing at the Hollywood Bowl. We took over the stage and the bar at The Hyatt House on Sunset (Riot House). The people were incredibly diverse in life experience, from all over the country. I was blown away by the talent and love for Joni's music and for each other. I can't wait to see my new friends from the LS fest and make more new friends at the Catskills "Return to The Full Moon"“
Les Irvin

“It's been more than a quarter of a century since we first came to Full Moon for a JoniFest. We've had many reunions since then in many other places. But Full Moon, for me, has always best represented the feel and the spirit of our events. I'm looking forward to getting back to the garden!”
Chris Coccaro
Robin Adler & Dave Blackburn

Robin Adler and Dave Blackburn have devoted the past 20 years to exploring the music of Joni Mitchell through its many phases. Under the moniker Mutts of the Planet, they have performed at many ‘JoniFests’ around the world and become active contributors to the Joni Mitchell Discussion Group (the JMDL), forging strong and lasting friendships with other members. The legendary JoniFests at The Full Moon in the late 1990s will come full circle, thirty years later, with the 2027 gathering.
Kimberly Ford & Stan Krome

“Playing Joni Miitchell's music in a place as inspiring as The Full Moon is a dream come true for my Dreamland band. We have been on this journey of sharing Joni's Music for the past 12 years, with some wonderful opportunities to also share with the Joni Mitchell Discussion List (JMDL) during their semi-annual festivals. We have traveled and played in British Columbia, North Carolina and New Orleans. Playing inspired versions of one of the world's most inspiring song writers, Joni Mitchell, and now presenting our work at Full Moon in the amazing Catskill Mountains will be the highlight of this pilgrimage.”
Michael Paz

“I found the JMDL shortly after my mother passed. The first thing I typed into a search engine was Joni Mitchell and it led me to this amazing group. At I time when my heart and soul needed healing I found some of the best friends I have ever had. It has been 30 years since I joined and I have attended so many Jonifests around North America and I have hosted four of my own in New Orleans called PazFest's. This is where I began the journey to raise money for a childrens hospital my sister and I built in San Pedro Sula Honduras where we support children and families in need of excellent medical care. It is a great honor for me to Co-Produce and Host this event at the Full Moon Resort, which is in the top three best places we have held our gatherings. Return to the Full Moon and back to the garden with lifelong friends and family and the opportunity to discover many more friends and welcome them into our group of music lovers and not just Joni. It is there at the Full Moon where I discovered Jonatha Brooke who led me to Susan Werner who are both joining us for this celebration!!”