Joni Mitchell and Chuck Mitchell (ex Husband) - Dating, Gossip, News, Photos list. Help us build our profile of Joni Mitchell and Chuck Mitchell (ex Husband)!
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(1965 - 1967) (divorced)
A few weeks after the birth of her daughter in 1965, Joni Anderson was gigging again around Yorkville, beginning to sing more of her original material for the first time, written with her unique open tunings. In March and April she found work at the Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto. There she met Chuck Mitchell, an American folk-singer from Michigan. Chuck was immediately attracted to her and impressed by her performance, and he told her that he could get her steady work in the coffeehouses he knew in the United States. In one interview, Mitchell claimed she married Chuck only 36 hours after they met, but it is unclear if they were ever married in Toronto. Sometime in late April, Mitchell left Canada for the first time, going with Chuck to the US, where the two began playing music together. Joni, 21 years old, married Chuck in an official ceremony in his hometown in June 1965 and took his surname. She said, "I made my dress and bridesmaids' dresses. We had no money... I walked down the aisle brandishing my daisies."
Michigan
While living at the Verona apartments in Detroit's Cass Corridor, Chuck and Joni were regular performers at area coffee houses, including the Alcove bar, near Wayne State University; the Rathskeller, a restaurant on the campus of the University of Detroit; and the Raven Gallery in Southfield. She began playing and composing songs in alternative guitar tunings taught to her by a fellow musician, Eric Andersen, in Detroit. Oscar Brand featured her several times on his CBC television program Let's Sing Out in 1965 and 1966, broadening her exposure. The marriage and partnership of Joni and Chuck Mitchell dissolved in early 1967, and Joni moved to New York City to pursue her musical dreams as a solo artist. She played venues up and down the East Coast, including Philadelphia, Boston, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She performed frequently in coffeehouses and folk clubs and, by this time creating her own material, became well known for her unique songwriting and her innovative guitar style.
