CANADIAN DOUBLES - THE MUSIC OF JONI MITCHELL AND LEONARD COHEN

WESTPORT, Conn - Joni Mitchell
and Leonard Cohen, partners in life and music if not in tennis, were lovers for
a few weeks back in the 60’s. Suzanne Sheridan, of “90 Pound Suburban Housewife
Driving in Her SUV” fame, has been caressing them back together for the past 3
years in a tribute concert she has been performing from Canada to Australia. On
Friday Nov. 22, she will be performing this tribute concert at 6 PM at the Westport
Historical Society located at 25 Avery Place in downtown Westport, across from
Town Hall.

Having just turned 70 and
living in California, Joni Mitchell was born in Fort Macleod in Alberta,
Canada. As a child she was afflicted with polio but overcame the debilitating
disease to become one of the world’s most revered writers and performers. Having
written such masterful originals as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides Now,”
“Chelsea Morning,” and “A Case of You,” Mitchell spent her first serious
musical years in New York City hanging out with notable musicians such as
Graham Nash, Bob Dylan, David Crosby, James Taylor, and Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen was born in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It took New York City to bring the two Canadians,
Joni and Leonard, together. And even though they were lovers for only a couple
of weeks (“That was a long time back then,” comments Sheridan) they were each
other’s inspiration for music and for life. Cohen is best known for his
hauntingly powerful and emotional songs “Hallelujah,” “Anthem,” “Suzanne,” and
the Johnny Cash hit, “Bird on a Wire.”

The idea to reunite Joni and Leonard,
if only musically, came to Sheridan after reading Sheila Weller’s book, “Girls
Like Us.” Weller offers this observation: “Joni embarked upon a love affair
with Leonard Cohen. Although their romance was short-lived, its influence was
among the most important in her career. In fact, no brief relationship in
Joni’s life produced as many songs, and so many of her better songs, as did her
few-weeks-long-romance with Cohen.”

The Mitchell/Cohen musical
adventure began on a Sunday afternoon three years ago when Sheridan gathered
together musician friends Ruth Ahlers, Marshal Rosenberg, and Robin Batteau at
the Unitarian Church in Westport to experiment with musically uniting Joni and
Leonard in a concert setting. The audience response was so positive and supportive
that Sheridan took the show on the road. She was invited by The Piggery Theatre
in North Hatley, Quebec to do the Canadian debut of the tribute concert (which
Sheridan titled “Both Sides Now”) and in January 2011 Sheridan was brought to
Australia to tour with the concert. Again, the response was overwhelmingly
positive.  Returning to
Connecticut, she found several venues that wanted to present the music of Joni
Mitchell and Leonard Cohen but she had never made a proper “live” recording of
this material. When Sheridan met up with Westport keyboard player Bob Cooper,
she felt confident that they could do justice to the material and ultimately
justify a live recording, which took place at a sold-out Voices Café concert on
September 22, 2012. 

Sheridan and Cooper have been
performing this material to audiences across Connecticut. Other members of the
musical entourage are Ruth Ahlers of Norwalk on sax, clarinet, recorder,
special percussion, and vocals; and Marshal Rosenberg of New York City, a world-renown
percussionist who has toured with Tom Rush, Aztec Two Step as well as Buskin
and Batteau.

The concert is set for Friday
November 22 at 6 PM. Light refreshments will be provided by RAINBOW THAI and
complimentary wine will be included with the suggested donation of $10.
Reservations can be made by calling 203-222-1424, or emailing barbaraatwhs@gmail.com. The live
recording CD will be available for purchase for $20 and can also be found at CD
Baby, http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/suzannesheridanmusic.

Bring yourself and your
friends, and be prepared for a memorable experience listening to the music of
two of the world’s greatest musical poets sung by Suzanne Sheridan, backed by
an amazing group of musicians.