Joni Mitchell: From Folk and Folk-Rock to Jazz and Beyond
Course | Registration opens 8/3/2026 7:00 AM PDT
Joni Mitchell: From Folk and Folk-Rock to Jazz and Beyond
Joni Mitchell established herself as one of the top singer-songwriters of her generation with
classics like "Both Sides Now," "Woodstock," and "Help Me." This course traces her evolution during her peak years from the mid-1960s through the end of the 1970s, when she rose to stardom by forging a path through folk and folk-rock before branching into jazz. Featuring
common and rare film and audio clips, the class also puts her work into the context of the era's
thriving folk-rock scene, when she influenced and sometimes collaborated with stars like
Crosby, Stills, Nash &x; Young, Judy Collins, and James Taylor.
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is the author of nearly a dozen music history books, including volumes on the Who and the Velvet Underground, as well as a two-part history of 1960s folk-rock. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. He is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, and has taught courses on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, 1960s folk-rock, the history of rock from 1955-1980, and San Francisco rock at the College of Marin. He gives regular presentations on rock, soul, and folk history throughout the Bay Area incorporating rare vintage film clips and audio recordings, at public libraries and other venues. In 2014, he was one of seven recipients of grants to conduct research at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its Gladys Krieble Delmas Visiting Scholar program.