wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

John Kelly sings Joni Mitchell on the radio for the first time when he joins David Garland on Spinning On Air. Accompanied by pianist Zecca Esquivel (who appears as artist Georgia O’Keefe in concert), Kelly performs several Joni Mitchell songs, and dicusses what the songs mean to him, as well as his encounters with Mitchell herself. Kelly also shares some of his other vocal projects and talks about his lengthy career at the vanguard of Performance Art.
The extrordinary singer, actor, artist, and dancer John Kelly has created performances in which he portrays poet Antonin Artaud, painter Egon Schiele, and even the Mona Lisa herself. For several years now he’s also been putting on a dress and blonde wig to perform the songs of Joni Mitchell, most recently in a series of sold-out concerts at Fez. His portrayal of the great singer/songwriter conveys intelligence, sensitivity and kindness, as well as humor. Watching Kelly perform can be wonderful, but his expressive counter-tenor voice does such beautiful things with Mitchell’s songs that it makes for great listening even without the dress and wig.