Review: Katie Noonan performs Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ at Freo.Social

Katie Noonan performs Joni Mitchell’s Blue at Freo.Social
w/ Jack Carty
Friday, May 26, 2023

When Joni Mitchell’s revered 1971 album Blue neared its 50th anniversary, it was inevitable some brave souls would attempt to cover it. For lovers of Blue, there was an equally inevitable shudder at the thought of one of music’s sacred cows being massacred!

However it was a different matter when one of Australia’s national treasures, Katie Noonan announced a national tour to play the album in its entirety. As each state and dates were released, the venues quickly sold out and in WA’s case the initial single-date show became three performances.

The WA leg of the tour kicked off at Freo.Social, and although the 500 capacity venue was sold out, the arrangement of chairs worked well to provide an intimate setting fitting for such a show.

Jack Carty was first to the stage. Originally hailing from New South Wales, he was the perfect artist to set the tone for a memorable evening. Performing solo with just an acoustic guitar and harmonica, Carty commanded the audience’s attention – especially when he described the background of his well-written, beautifully played songs. 

These included the story about travelling with a mate in Summer in New Zealand, which had the audience in stitches, while at other times he was poignant and tender, like when he spoke of the people he loved in Autumn Leaves. Other standout songs were Why the Universe Expands (written for his children), and the closer Fleeting. With four albums under his belt, it’s a mystery he isn’t more widely known.

Katie Noonan took to a stripped-back, minimalist stage with low lighting, two chairs, a keyboard and the wonderful Ben Hauptman on guitar. From the beginning, Noonan was warm, funny, and very knowledgeable about Joni Mitchell and Blue itself. But she also humbly owned up to times she might forget a word, while never seeming daunted by the potential weight of audience expectation.

Giving background to her own journey with Joni Mitchell, Noonan described how she came to her music, specifically Blue, through a friend who gifted her a CD album. She described it as an incredible record, with incredible lyrics, incredible musicianship and incredible honesty and vulnerability, and was inspired by it as a songwriter.

The album was written during a period of two, maybe three big love affairs; Graham Nash, James Taylor and Leonard Cohen. As Noonan put it: “she had good taste – quite the trifecta of bad asses."

Katie's voice and delivery leant themselves sublimely to singing Mitchell's songs because she has the same extraordinary ability to sound warm and earthy on the lower register then effortlessly soar so high, with the note caught and held with her trademark bell-like tone, clear and pure. She was exquisite, mainly performing herself on keyboards along with the phenomenal playing of Ben Hauptmann on guitar, who mostly stayed in the background – although Noonan included him with stories of their times on the road and his family.

Finishing the night, Noonan dived back into an earlier album Ladies of the Canyon and played The Circle Game, encouraging the audience to sing along. After which Noonan and Hauptmann were given a richly deserved standing ovation.

LINDA DUNJEY

Photos by Linda Dunjey