Real Name: Roberta Joan Anderson
Born: November 7, 1943

Roberta Joan Anderson [Joni Mitchell] is a Canadian songwriter, musician and painter born on November 7, 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. Joni Mitchell is also a skillful visual artist.

Joan was born in Fort Macleod, Canada and her mother Myrtle Anderson, was a teacher and father Bill Anderson, was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Later the family moved to Saskatchewan and settled in Saskatoon. Joan was stricken by polio at the age of nine and was admitted in a children’s hospital, while recovering in the hospital she got interested in singing and started her career by singing to the other patients. She learnt playing ukulele by herself and later proceeded with the guitar and started performing in parties, gigs and other venues in Saskatoon. Joan got enrolled in ‘Alberta College of Art and Design’ in Calgary and studied for a year.

Joni Mitchell

Joan moved to Toronto in June 1964, where she found out that she was pregnant by her ex-boyfriend. She gave birth to a baby girl (Kelly Dale Anderson) in February 1965. Joan married Chuck Mitchell, a folk singer in 1965 and started performing under the name Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell and Chuck Mitchell moved to Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1965. However they broke up and marriage got dissolved in a year and a half.

Joni Mitchell moved to New York City in 1967 and started performing as a solo artist. Mitchell’s performances in New York City won the major press acclaim for her songwriting skills, innovative guitar style and distinctive vocals. David Crosby (founding member of ‘The Byrds’ and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’) met Joni Mitchell in a club in Florida, ‘The Gaslight South’ and was impressed by her ability as an artist. Joni signed with ‘Reprise records’ and released her debut album ‘Song to a Seagull’ in 1968 which earned David a producer’s recognition.

In March 1970, Joni Mitchell won Grammy Award for her album “Clouds” for the Best Folk Performance of 1969. Joni’s third album “Ladies of the Canyon’ was a continuous hit on FM Radio and marked has her first gold album. Joni stopped performing after this album and continued just painting and writing songs. She was voted Top Female Performer for 1970 by the UK’s pop music magazine. Joni released her next album ‘Blue’ in June 1971. The album gave her a huge success and she stepped again on the stage to give performances. She released several albums which hit the top position on the Billboard album charts.

Joni Mitchell met jazz bassist Charles Mingus in the early 1978 and worked with him in his project, but Charles died before the project completed in 1979. Joni experimented jazz and completed the project. The album “Mingus” was released in June 1979, which topped at number 17 on the Billboard album charts.

Joni Mitchell returned to Calgary in February 2007 and served as an advisor for the Alberta Ballet Company premiere of ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’, a dance choreographed to new and old songs. Joni Mitchell’s friend Herbie Hancock released the album “River: The Joni Letters” in 2007 as a tribute to Mitchell’s work. The album won Grammy award as the ‘Album of the Year’ on February 10, 2008.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell’s awards include: ‘Billboard’s Century Award’ in 1995, ‘Polar Music Prize’ in 1996, and ‘Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2002. Joni has received nine regular Grammy Awards during her career. In 1997, she was inducted into ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and in 1981; she was inducted into the ‘Canadian Music Hall of Fame’.

Some of her albums include:

• Song to a Seagull in 1968
• Clouds in 1969
• Ladies of the Canyon in 1970
• Blue in 1971
• For the Roses in 1972
• Court and Spark in 1974
• The Hissing of Summer Lawns in 1975
• Hejira in 1976
• Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter in 1977
• Mingus in 1979
• Shadows and Light in 1980
• Wild Things Run Fast in 1982
• Dog Eat Dog in 1985
• Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm in 1988
• Night Ride Home in 1991
• Turbulent Indigo in 1994
• Taming the Tiger in 1998
• Both Sides Now in 2000
• Travelogue in 2002
• Shine in 2007

Real Name: Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood
Born: November 5, 1971

Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is a guitarist and also a multi-instrumentalist born on November 5, 1971 in Oxford, England.He is best known as the member of an English Alternative Rock band ‘Radiohead’ and serves as the lead guitarist. Jonny Greenwood is a Grammy and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards nominated musician. He is also composer-in-residence for the BBC. In addition to guitar he plays Viola, Xylophone, Ondes Martenot, Organ, Piano, Glockenspiel, Banjo, Drums and Harmonica.

Jonny Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood and his brother Colin Charles Greenwood attended Abingdon School near Oxford where Colin met Thom Yorke, the founding member of the band “Radiohead”. Radiohead was formed during the late 1980s under the name “On A Friday”. Jonny Greenwood was younger then the other four members of the band and was given a chance to play harmonica at a gig at the Jericho Tavern in 1987 in Oxford. Jonny later took up keyboard duties and performed with the band. The band got disbanded for few years as the members of the band went off to continue their studies. The band “On A Friday” was reformed again in the summer of 1991 and released couple of demos and gigs.

On A Friday quickly became popular and was seen on the cover of ‘Curfew’, a magazine. The band “On A Friday” signed a recording contract with the EMI, a British Music Company in 1991 for which Jonny Greenwood left the university and joined the band. The band got inspired by the American Rock band’s album “True Stories” and renamed the band as “Radiohead”.  The band members included Thom Yorke on vocals, Jonny Greenwood on guitar and other instruments, Colin Greenwood on bass guitar, synthesizers, Phil Selway on drums, percussion and Ed O’Brien on backing vocals and guitar.

Jonny Greenwood is the only band member without a university degree and is capable of playing any instruments. Jonny Greenwood has written many songs for the albums of Radiohead and is seen as a lead guitarist. Some of his music composition includes ‘The Tourist’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’, songs from the album “OK Computer” and ‘A Wolf at the Door’, song from the album “Hail to the Thief”.

Jonny Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood released his first solo album “Bodysong” in 2003. Jonny Greenwood worked for BBC as a composer at his resdidence from May 2004. Working with BBC helped him compose several pieces for the symphony orchestra. Some of his works like Piano for Children, Popcorn Superhet Receiver and smear made him popular. The later was premiered in 2004. A live concert was commissioned by BBC Radio with Greenwood's new work on April 2005.

Jonny Greenwood received the ‘BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award’ at the 2006 BBC British Composer Awards for his composition work in “Popcorn Superhet Receiver”.
Jonny Greenwood, a fan of ‘Dub reggae’ music released a compilation album “Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller’ in association with ‘Trojan Records’ in March 2007. Jonny was provided with an extensive list of songs by Trojan Records from which he selected 17 songs and played. He received an award at the “Critics’ Choice Awards” for his composition work for the movie “There Will Be Blood” from director Paul Thomas Anderson. It was announced that Jonny Greenwood won the trophy for Best Film Score in the ‘Evening Standard British Film Awards’ for 2007 on 4 February 2008.

Jonny Greenwood is married to Sharona and they have a son Tamir, born in 2002 and daughter Omni, born in 2005. Sharona Greenwood gave birth to their third child in February 2008.

His Guitar Collection includes:

• Fender Telecaster Plus
• Fender Telecaster
• Fender Starcaster with Fender Wide Range pickups
• Gretsch G6119-1962HT Tennessee Rose HT
• Gibson Les Paul
• Gibson ES-335
• Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
• Martin D-35
• Taylor Big Baby

Some of his albums include:

• Pablo Honey (1993)
• The Bends (1995)
• OK Computer (1997)
• Kid A (2000)
• Amnesiac (2001)
• Hail to the Thief (2003)
• In Rainbows (2007)

Real Name: Jonathan Butler
Born: October 1961

Jonathan Butler is a guitarist, singer and songwriter born in October 1961 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Jonathan Butler was born and raised during ‘Apartheid’, a system of legalized racial segregation. He was the youngest of twelve children and the only child who began playing acoustic guitar and singing. Jonathan Butler learnt different genres of music and was an admirer of South African Stars. Poverty and racial segregation was the subject of many of his records in 1980s.

Jonathan Butler - Guitarist

In 1977, British producer Clive Calder signed Jonathan Butler to the London-based ‘Jive Records’. Jonathan signed Jive Records when he was a teenager and did not know fluent English. Jonathan Butler’s instrumental debut album was released in the same year (1977). The album earned him a ‘Sarie Award’, which is South African equivalent of an American Grammy. Jonathan was often compared to Benson, who has been praised for his guitar playing and singing.

Jonathan Butler began composing songs in 1978 and joined ‘Pacific Express’, the Cape Town’s jazz/rock group. He recorded two albums with Pacific Express. Jonathan Butler moved to England in the early 1980s, where ‘Jive Records’ main office was located and remained there for 17 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, Jonathan Butler maintained a loyal following in South Africa, Europe and the United States. 

The CD "Gospel Goes Classical" ranked #2 on Billboard Gospel charts in 2006. In the same year, the CD also topped #3 position in Classical Crossover charts. Butler contributed the vocals for this CD produced by University of Alabama

Some of his albums include:

• ‘Introducing Jonathan Butler’ (1985)
• ‘Jonathan Butler’ and ‘Inspirations’ (1987)
• ‘7th Avenue’ and ‘More Than Friends’ (1988)
• ‘Heal Our Land’ (1990)
• ‘Best Of Jonathan Butler’ (1993)
• ‘Jonathan Daniel Butler’ and ‘Head To Head’ (1994) 
• ‘Do You Love Me?’ (1997)
• ‘Story Of Life’ (1999)
• ‘The Source’ (2000)
• ‘Surrender’ and ‘Ultimate Butler’ (2002)
• Worship Project (2004)
• Jonathan (2005)
• Gospel Goes Classical (2006)
• Brand New Day (2007)
  

Real Name: Jonathan David Schneck
Born: 1981

Jonathan David Schneck is a guitarist born in 1981 in Florida. He is better known for his work with the Christian Rock Band “Relient K”.

Jonathan Schneck is currently working with “Relient K”.

Jonathan Schneck learnt and started playing guitar at the age of ten. He formed the band “Flippant” along with his friends when he was in seventh grade. The band disbanded when he reached his high school. Jonathan Schneck later performed in few of the bands in high school. Jonathan enrolled in a college and studied for a month and came back home. He later moved to Nashville, where he got a job selling cowboy boots downtown.

While Jonathan Schneck was performing in the band ‘De Novo Dahl’, he was offered the job as a roadie for “Jessica Simpson’s” first headline tour. A production company hired him and the band was on hold. Jonathan quit ‘De Novo Dahl’ after the tour and started working with the production company which hired him. Jonathan Schneck performed in several tours with the company and one of which was with the Christian rock band “Audio Adrenaline”. He was referred as “Frodo” in the band.

Jonathan Schneck

In 2004, Audio Adrenaline toured with the band ‘Relient K’ and became good friends with band members of Relient K. Jonathan Schneck was offered to play guitarist, banjo player, bell player and other instruments here and there, eventually he was offered has a band member in January 2005. Jonathan also plays piano/keyboard and mandolin in acoustic sessions. Jonathan Schneck is usually seen playing backup guitar to the lead guitarist ‘Matt Hoopes’ of Relient K.

Jonathan Schneck has created nine video podcasts throughout ‘Matt Hoopes Birthday Tour’ and has made fourteen to fifteen total podcasts by now for Relient K.

Jonathan Schneck resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Lindsay and son Liam.

Some of his albums include:

• ‘Alive DVD’ by Audio Adrenaline (2003)
• ‘Apathetic EP’ by Relient K (2005)
• ‘Five Score and Seven Years Ago’ and ‘Let it Snow, Baby…Let it Reindeer’ by Relient K (2007)