Grammy Award-winning folk songwriter Janis Ian has canceled the remaining stops on her fall farewell tour. Ian contracted laryngitis earlier this year, forcing her to postpone performances originally scheduled for this spring. Recently, she learned that her case of laryngitis left scarring in the folds of her vocal cords, which is known to make it difficult to speak or sing and can also be difficult to treat. In a statement, she said:
It is with unfathomable sadness that I announce the cancellation of all upcoming tour dates. Unfortunately, the laryngitis that forced the postponement of some spring dates has turned out to be more complicated than a simple, treatable laryngitis. There is vocal fold scarring; the doctors can only speculate as to why, but treatments are very limited. And it would be many months before we’d know the outcome of any treatment. It is most unlikely that I’ll ever sound like myself again. I consider myself lucky that this is not life-threatening, though the loss in my own small world is staggering.
Ian’s farewell tour follows her recent album The Light at the End of the Line, which was billed as her final solo album. “I’m 71 this year, and there are a multitude of reasons to stop,” Ian told American Songwriter. “I would like to spend time writing. And I would like to spend time with my family. I’d like to do a bunch of other things, so having a full tilt career doesn’t allow for any of that right now. I’ve been doing it for so long now.”
Ian has written and recorded music for more than 60 years. Her 1965 song “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking)” was recorded when she was 14 years old and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a work of historical importance. Other hits like “At Seventeen” and “Fly Too High” cemented Ian’s place in the mid-century songwriting landscape, with the former single rising to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Songs from her 1974 album Stars have been frequently covered by Cher, Joan Baez, and Nina Simone, among others.
Read Pitchfork’s list of “The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.”
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