Artist Features
Robben Ford’s Guitar Work on Joni Mitchell’s Miles of Aisles
Along with our March 2026 feature on Robben Ford, JGT contributor Joe Barth takes a look back at Robben’s work with Joni Mitchell.
Released in 1974, Miles of Aisles was Joni Mitchell’s first live album. The tour supported her newly released album Court and Spark, and she invited Tom Scott and the L.A. Express to serve as her backing band. Many of the L.A. Express musicians were session musicians on Court and Spark. On Court and Spark, drummer John Guerin and saxophonist Tom Scott both played on all the songs. Bassist Max Bennett played on all but three songs. L.A. Express’ pianist Larry Nash and guitarist Robben Ford did not play on Court and Spark, but were on the tour and thus on the Miles of Aisles album.
Robben Ford was born in 1951 and grew up in Ukiah, California, taking up the guitar at age fourteen and focusing on the blues. By age eighteen, he was hired by blues artist Charlie Musselwhite and recorded two albums with Jimmy Witherspoon. In the early 1970s, he joined Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, touring with George Harrison and Joni Mitchell.
All the tracks on Miles of Aisles, except two, were recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles from August 14 to 17, 1974. One of the solo songs was recorded at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and another solo song was recorded in Berkeley, California.
Miles of Aisles opens with…
“You Turn Me On I’m Your Radio”
With Joni carrying the rhythm guitar, this frees Robben to weave around her vocals with serpentine melodic lines that swell and fade, tastefully using his volume pedal. He is especially tasteful near the end of the song where he and Joni seem to finish each other’s phrases as Joni scats.
“Big Yellow Taxi”
While Joni vigorously strums, Robben plays dyads of (root + 5th & 6ths) in the lower register of the guitar, with a catchy unison lick (unison with the Rhodes or the sax) between the singing phrases.
“Rainy Night House”
Robben returns to swells on his volume pedal, weaving them around the bass in the intro, then the vocals. In the middle section, he plays a catchy lick, weaving it around Tom Scott’s recorder melody.
“Woodstock”
On the intro, Robben’s wah-wah weaves around a catchy minor lick. Behind the vocals, he plays catchy triad figures. Max Bennett’s bass lines are filled with melodic hooks. Robben occasionally goes back to his wah-wah on occasion for the rest of the song.
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