Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Julie Ness, Dave Wysocki, and Tristan Bellerive performing Joni Mitchell's legendary album "Blue." The trio celebrates the 50-year anniversary of this groundbreaking album that defined a generation with a ten-song cycle, weaving a journey of hope, yearning, love, loss, and heartbreak. Ness (vocals, piano, dulcimer), Wysocki (double bass), and Bellerive (guitar) return to Next Stage having sold out their previous concert here in June, 2019, after first performing "Blue" in November, 2018, three days after Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory with a background in concert and operatic work, Ness has devoted herself to the intersection of bluegrass, folk, and classical music, and has performed internationally as a soloist. After studying jazz, classical, and world music at UMASS Dartmouth, Bellerive has performed, recorded, and taught music throughout New England and in Nashville, TN. He and Ness perform their unique brand of "chambergrass" as "Watson's Cabin," their old-time and classical mash-up band. With a degree in double bass performance from the Boston University School of Music, Wysocki has performed with the Vermont Symphony, Dartmouth Symphony, and Hanover Chamber Orchestras, as well as the Upper Valley Mozart Project and the Abendmusik Chamber Players. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1970 and released in 1971, "Blue" represents a “turning point and pinnacle in 20th-century popular music" (New York Times - January, 2000). It was also rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," the highest entry by a female artist. In July 2017, "Blue" was chosen by NPR as the greatest album of all time made by a woman. In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either." Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test within 48 hours required for entry to indoor shows. Masks required while inside the venue. This performance is made possible in part by the generous sponsorship of Oak Meadow and The Richards Group.