The guitar that helped Joni Mitchell write timeless hits like “Both Sides, Now,” and “The Circle Game” survived a war zone, airline damage and years on the road, only to vanish around 1970.
Mitchell’s first four albums are the works on which she established herself as a folk talent for the ages. They not only introduced her singular voice and vision but also produced a durable repertoire that includes “Chelsea Morning,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock,” as well as the entirety of Blue — widely regarded as her masterpiece and one of the greatest albums of all time.
Remarkably, one guitar was central to each of those recordings: a 1956 Martin D-28. And before Mitchell became its keeper, it had already lived a life of its own.
She discovered the instrument while performing for troops at Fort Bragg. Although Mitchell is often associated with the 1960s counterculture, she told the CBC, “I was not a part of the anti-war movement.” Like other entertainers, including Bob Hope, she made a point of performing for servicemen. “I went the Bob Hope route because I had uncles who died in the war, and I thought it was a shame to blame the boys who were drafted.”
At the time, she was playing “a small-bodied Martin that didn’t have very good bass response.” One night after a show, an officer approached her.
“There was a captain there who’d been to Vietnam and returned, and he had two instruments that he’d taken with him,” Mitchell told Guitar Player. “I guess this whole place was a battlefield, and shrapnel hit his tent and demolished one guitar. The only surviving thing was a Martin D-28, which I’d always wanted but couldn’t afford.
“One night after I’d played, he told me, ‘Joni, you’re better than Peter, Paul and Mary, and you should have this guitar,’ and he told me the history of it. Being an independent girl, I said, ‘I couldn’t take it as a gift, but I’ll buy it off you.’
“So he sold it to me for nothing — really, far less than its value at the time. That guitar, which I used for at least my first four albums, was superb.
“It was a better D-28 than anybody ever heard. It was a 1956, built at a time when Martin was very selective. Their craftsmanship was at its pinnacle, I think. It wasn’t so mass-produced. Every acoustic player who ever touched that guitar just drooled over it.”
Its intonation, in particular, set it apart. A unique guitar stylist, Mitchell has long relied on open and alternate tunings, which she adopted after childhood polio made it difficult for her to form standard chord shapes. Those tunings demand an instrument that can maintain clarity and balance even under unusual string tensions.
“I need really good intonation,” she explained to Acoustic Guitar. “One of the signs of really good intonation is how flashy the harmonics are with a light touch. You should be able to get them to bloom like jewels.”
In that respect, the D-28 was ideal. “It just seemed to eat that up,” she told Guitar Player. “It traveled well, through hot and cold, and it was my true love.”
Unfortunately, life on the road took its toll. “It got cracked on the airlines,” Mitchell recalled. “Its face got crushed. It was repaired, but it never sounded right. It just died.
“After that, I became very promiscuous with guitars, and I could never find one with that balance and resonance.”
Soon afterward, the guitar disappeared entirely.
“It finally was stolen off a carousel in Maui, of all places, and that was the end of it. In the years that followed, I searched and bought old Martins, but nothing compared.”
In 1993 or ’94, she came close to recapturing the magic when she acquired a Martin D-45. That search also led her to Collings Guitars.
“The same dealer who sold me the D-45 introduced me to a new guitar maker called Collings, who fancies himself Martin reincarnated,” she said. “He’s making Martin clones, but in the old way — a small number a year, with the details that fell by the wayside as Martin moved into mass production.
It finally was stolen off a carousel in Maui, of all places, and that was the end of it. In the years that followed, I searched and bought old Martins, but nothing compared.”
— Joni Mitchell
“I picked up two more instruments that I think are really superb: a baby guitar with a 14-fret neck and a dreadnought. I need the long necks for my tunings, although I enjoy the wide, old 12-fret necks. So now I have an arsenal of acoustics to suit my music for the first time in my career.”
Mitchell’s legacy continues to deepen. Her archival collection, Joni Mitchell Archives — Vol. 4: The Asylum Years, recently earned her the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album, and she is set to receive a lifetime achievement honor from the Juno Awards — further recognition of an artist whose music helped define an era.
