October 3, 2025 | Kenneth Best, for UConn Today

‘I Just Went for It’: Acclaimed Joni Mitchell Tribute Comes to Jorgensen

Actor and musician Rainee Blake takes a 'deep dive' into the life and work of the legendary artist

Actor and musician Rainee Blake sits on the ground holding an acoustic guitar.

Actor and musician Rainee Blake brings her tribute to Joni Mitchell to Storrs on October 4 (contributed photo).

Musician and actor Rainee Blake will bring her performance of “TAKE ME AS I AM: A Joni Mitchell Tribute” to Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 4 at 8 p.m.

“As the iconic Joni Mitchell, Rainee Blake’s performance succeeds in transforming the stage into a time machine,” said Ernest Kearney of TheTVolution.com of the award-winning presentation.

Blake, a singer-songwriter and writer best known for her role as Alannah on CMT’s “Nashville,” plays Joni Mitchell in an intimate concert experience that includes Mitchell’s most memorable songs and the stories that inspired them. The show is set on a night in 1976 after Mitchell returned home from a solo road trip across America and just before the release of her acclaimed album “Hejira.” Playing both guitar and dulcimer Blake, performs classic songs from the Mitchell catalog including “Woodstock,” “Both Sides Now” and “A Case of You.”

“I wanted to write a show for myself that could be a showcase for my acting as well as my music,” Blake said during an interview on WHUS’ Good Music Show on Oct. 1. “Portraying Joni Mitchell is a serious undertaking, and I take it very seriously.”

AllMusic describes Joni Mitchell as “the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century.” She is known for her unconventional compositions and personal lyrics that have used elements of pop, jazz, rock and other genres based on tunings on her guitar. She had 13 Top 40 charted albums, with 1971’s “Blue,” considered by Rolling Stone Magazine among the Top 50 Albums of All Time.

In 2021, UConn presented a conference titled “Joni Mitchell’s Blue at 50: A Celebration of Her Life and Music,” a day-long virtual conference with presentations by internationally renowned authors, scholars, music critics. Mitchell was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997.

 

Blake discussed the development of her Mitchell tribute and her upcoming activities with WHUS on the Good Music show (Wednesdays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.):