Interview: Rainee Blake Talks Her Award-Winning Play And Performance In TAKE ME AS I AM: A JONI MITCHELL TRIBUTE

Rainee Blake (pictured winning awards at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival) is an Australian-born singer-songwriter, actress and writer based in Los Angeles, perhaps best known for her role as Alannah on CMT’s popular show Nashville. But during this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, Rainee brought her one-woman show Take Me As I Am, which offers audiences an intimate club experience in which she performs memorable songs and shares the stories which inspired them as folk singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, while playing both guitar and dulcimer.

I decided to speak with her about the show’s development, her reaction to its award-winning reception at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, where she has performed the show before, and what future plans she has to take it on the road.

Thank you Rainee for speaking with me about your play and transformation into Joni Mitchell for it. What first inspired you to write Take Me As I Am in 2012?

When I was thirteen my dad first gave me a copy of Court and Spark and said, "I think youʼre ready for this.” I became obsessed with Joni, and the show developed out of my love for not just her music but the incredible life she's led. She's defiant, angelic and full of contradictions. I hope to inspire audiences with the same lasting love for her that I have.

Rainee Blake performing as Joni Mitchell in Take Me As I Am during the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Do you see similarities to her in your own life?

Definitely. She’s so inspiring to me. It’s been incredible growing along with the show. When I first started performing, I was in my early twenties and my life mirrored the innocence and excitement that you hear in Joni’s early songs like All I Want and Chelsea Morning. I’ve lived a little more now. There’s a bit more cynicism, a toughness that Joni’s accumulated through the ups and downs of being an artist.

When did you first realize you could perform Joni Mitchell’s songs as the singer?

In my early teens. I bought a dulcimer early on and starting singing some of her songs off the Blue album. Through singing her songs my vocal range grew. And I loved the open tunings, it creates such an interesting texture sonically and that drew me in, not just as an interpreter but as a writer as well.

Singer/songwriter Rainee Blake. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Where did you get the title Take Me As I Am?

The title is taken from a lyric in the song California which is the first song I play in the show. I think Joni is really asking this question, “will you take me as I am?” Through all the decisions she’d had to make as a woman, as an artist, she is longing for validation that she’s made the right choices. She loves her audience but her audience doesn’t always love her. There’s a longing for acceptance, a longing to be understood beyond this kind of deification that happened from early on in her career. She’s asking to be seen as a full person, with all her flaws, sadness and joy.

Tell me about Joni’s story in the play.

I set the show at the peak of Joniʼs career in 1976 after she returns home from a solo road trip and right before the release of her acclaimed album Hejira.

Why did you decide to set it then?

It’s an interesting time in her career when she started exploring more of a jazz sound and it captures the most autobiographical period of her songwriting. She’s in her thirties, she’s coming more into her own, and she has a unique perspective about her life up until this point.

Singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell

How did you select the songs you perform in it?

Take Me As I Am spans eight studio albums from Ladies of the Canyon to Hejira, featuring most prominently the songs from her acclaimed album Blue - widely credited as one of the best albums ever made. It was a challenge choosing songs, and this iteration includes some new interpretations. It’s important that each song propels the through line of the play which is this longing to be accepted and the push and pull of love and freedom that so colored her life.

How long have you been playing guitar and dulcimer? Did you specifically learn them in order to perform as Joni Mitchell?

Both for about fifteen years. I’m a singer-songwriter myself so I predominantly learned my instruments to perform my own songs, and of course it’s a wonderful side-effect that I can perform as Joni Mitchell too.

Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell | Creator: Robert Altman | Credit: Getty Images

Tell me about the people mentioned in your play that filled Joni’s life with such extraordinary experiences, especially James Taylor and Graham Nash.

Joni had relationships with some of the era’s most prominent singer-songwriters. I think it was a really interesting time especially in the late 1960s living in Laurel Canyon. There was this amazing creative community that fostered a lot of these artists. I speak of her relationship with Graham Nash in the show and how they were the source of many songs for one another. She also toured with James Taylor and sang backing vocals on some of his music.

James Taylor & Joni Mitchell. Photography by Sherry Barnett 

Did Joni Mitchell perform at Woodstock or what was that her inspiration for writing the song about it?

Joni never made it to Woodstock, believe it or not, and I talk about this in the show too. She was slated to play but her manager David Geffen made the call not to have to go as it was going to be too hard to get her in and out. Joni was able to channel the energy of the festival anyway and wrote the iconic song that captures the essence of what Woodstock stood for.

I was surprised to find out this was the US Premiere of your show. Where have you been performing it until now?

I toured the show in Australia years ago and this is a revival. I’m hoping to take the show on tour next year around the US.

Have you always performed it in intimate rooms like Three Clubs?

Mostly yes. I think the intimacy serves the show but a larger venue would also work.

Singer/songwriter Rainee Blake. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Congratulations on winning five Hollywood Fringe Festival awards this year! Where and when will audiences be able to catch your encore shows this month?

I’m performing my two encore performances July 10 & 18 at Three Clubs in Hollywood. Tickets can be booked at https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/9822

After that, where will you be performing it?

I’ll be heading to Italy to do a run of shows in October for the Catania Off Fringe Festival.

Seems you travel a lot. Do you enjoy life on the road as Joni did? Or did she really?

It can be wonderful and can also take its toll. I think that’s why she had periods of introspection in the woods in Canada. I think most artists have an ebb and flow between periods of creation and performing.

What message do you hope audiences will take away with them after seeing you as Joni Mitchell?

I hope to inspire people to listen to more Joni Mitchell! I hope people come away feeling more connected to their hearts, their community, and the music and poetry that I love so dearly.

Anything else you would like to add about yourself or your show?

I’m excited to be releasing some new music of my own this August and heading out on tour in Europe this October for my solo project. Watch a clip of me performing as Joni Mitchell in Take Me As I Am: youtu.be/H3I8IDZf8y0

Please follow me for album and tour updates:

www.instagram.com/raineeblake

www.tiktok.com/@rainee.blake

www.facebook.com/raineemusic

www.raineeblake.com

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