''Night Ride Home'' is the 14th album by Canadian singer-songwriter

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

, released in 1991. It was the last of four albums she recorded for

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

. Songs on the album include "Cherokee Louise" about a childhood friend who suffered

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

, "The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)" about a maid who tried to sue Mitchell, and the retrospective single release "Come in from the Cold" about childhood and middle age. The title song "Night Ride Home" (originally titled "Fourth of July" and first performed during promotion for her previous album in 1988) was inspired by a moonlit night in Hawaii. Though the album contained no charting singles, it received critical acclaim, and the track "Come in from the Cold" received airplay on AOR stations. This was Mitchell's first album not to be distributed by the

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

family of labels. She had been signed to WEA's

Asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

and

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repea ...

labels in the past, and

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

had been the distributor for Geffen Records from 1980 to 1990. That year, Geffen was sold to MCA Music (now

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

), as a result, the album was distributed by Uni Distribution Corp. (the distribution arm of MCA Music), which also took over the rest of the Geffen catalogue. A home video release, ''Come In from the Cold'', was released the same year and features promo videos for five tracks from the album along with an interview with Mitchell discussing the inspiration behind them. , the album has sold 238,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

All songs, words and music by Joni Mitchell; except where indicated #"Night Ride Home" – 3:21 #"Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free)" – 5:25 #"Cherokee Louise" – 4:32 #"The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)" – 5:15 #"Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (based on the poem " The Second Coming" by

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

) – 6:54 #"Come in from the Cold" – 7:31 #"Nothing Can Be Done" (words: Joni Mitchell; music:

Larry Klein Larry Klein (born March 17, 1956) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is based in Los Angeles. He began his career as a bassist, playing with jazz artists Willie Bobo, Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, Joe Henderson, Bobby ...

) – 4:53 #"The Only Joy in Town" – 5:11 #"Ray's Dad's Cadillac" – 4:33 #"

Two Grey Rooms "Two Grey Rooms" is a 1991 song written and performed by the Canadian musician Joni Mitchell. The song is the last track on her 1991 album ''Night Ride Home''. Mitchell wrote a wordless vocal melody and instrumental accompaniment for the song i ...

" – 3:57

Personnel

* Joni Mitchell – vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion,

Birotron The Birotron (pronounced by-ro-tron) is a tape replay keyboard conceived by American musician and inventor Dave Biro of Yalesville, Connecticut, US, and funded by English keyboardist Rick Wakeman in the 1970s, and Rudkin-Wiley of Pepperidge Farm F ...

on 6, oboe on 8,

Omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for ma ...

on 8 *

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

– soprano saxophone on 3, 9 * Bill Dillon – guitar on 2, 7; pedal steel guitar on 1 *

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitch ...

– guitar on 10 *

– bass; percussion on 1, 2, 3, 5, 6; guitar on 6; keyboards on 7 *

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colai ...

– drums on 4, 5, 6, 10; snare drum on 3 *

Alex Acuña Alejandro Neciosup Acuña (born December 12, 1944), known professionally as Alex Acuña, is a Peruvian-American drummer and percussionist. Background Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands such as La Orquesta de los Hermanos Neci ...

– percussion on 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 * Karen Peris – backing vocals on 3 *

Brenda Russell Brenda Russell (née Gordon; born April 8, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist. Russell has a diverse musical range which encompasses R&B, pop, soul, dance, and jazz. She has received five Grammy nominations. Li ...

– backing vocals on 9 *

David Baerwald David Francis Baerwald (born July 11, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and musician. Career Baerwald first came to prominence in 1986 as one half of the duo David & David, with David Ricketts. David and David's sole album, ' ...

– backing vocals on 7 *

Jeremy Lubbock Jeremy Michael Lubbock (4 June 1931 – 29 January 2021) was a Grammy-winning English pianist, conductor, orchestrator, music producer, arranger, composer, and songwriter. Life and career Born in Berkshire, he learned piano as a child, and ...

– conductor, arranger, string arrangement on 10

Charts

References

External links

Discogs listing
{{Authority control Joni Mitchell albums 1991 albums Albums produced by Larry Klein Geffen Records albums Albums produced by Joni Mitchell Albums recorded at A&M Studios