This is the house from "Our House"

Graham Nash met Joni Mitchell when he was touring Canada with The Hollies, and he was instantly smitten with her. A couple years later when he was visiting Los Angeles on his own, he ran into her again. And though the magical blend of his voice with the voices of David Crosby and Stephen Stills had a lot to do with why he left England and his wife to resettle in the U. S., the presence of Joni Mitchell was certainly an influence, too.

She had made her way to California to properly launch her own career not long before. And according to the website TheHollywoodHome.com, Joni explained, “Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they’ll say Laurel Canyon. And ask anyone in Laurel Canyon where the craziest people live and they’ll say Lookout Mountain. So I bought a house on Lookout Mountain.”

8420 Lookout Mountain Drive, to be exact.

On the website FanTrippers.com, Graham recalled that “I came to live in America in 1969 and stayed with David Crosby for a couple of nights. He threw me a party and invited Joni Mitchell whom I hadn’t seen since meeting her when I played with the Hollies. After that party I went home with Joni and spent a couple of years with her in her home in Laurel Canyon.”

It was a sweet little home, and the two musicians led an idyllic life there as a couple.

Graham recalled one very special occasion. “One day Joan and I got up and went to breakfast at a delicatessen on Ventura Boulevard, and a few doors away there was a little antique store, and in the window Joan saw this vase, went inside, fell in love with it, bought it and brought it back to the house.”

As he remembered the moment, when they got back home, he offered to light the fire while she found some flowers to put in the vase.

That afternoon, Graham sat down at Joni’s piano and turned that domestic snapshot into a song.

. . . .

You can read more about Joni’s old home on the Hollywood Home webpage here complete with photos and the asking price. Or you can read the article on FanTrippers here. Then come hear us play the song at our upcoming tribute to Crosby, Stills & Nash.