Joni Mitchell

A consummate artist. Joni Mitchell is an accomplished musician, songwriter, poet and painter. She was born Roberta Joan Anderson in remote northwest Canada. She was raised in the city of Saskatoon, where she took up painting and music at an early age. She found her niche in the same growing Southern California singer/songwriter scene of the late Sixties and early Seventies that germinated the likes of artists like Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Her artistry though goes well beyond folk singing to include elements of jazz and classical music too. Impossible to categorize, Mitchell has doggedly pursued avenues of self-expression, heedless of commercial outcomes. Nonetheless, she managed to connect with a mass audience in the mid-Seventies when a series of albums--”Court & Spark” (1976, #2), “Miles of Aisles” (1974, #2), “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” (1975, #4) and “Hejira (1976, #13), established her as one of that decade’s pre-eminent artists. “Court & Spark” is considered her break-through album while “Hejira” is regarded as her masterpiece. Her artwork has often been used on her album covers, for example, the Van Gogh-inspired self-portrait on her superb 1994’s “Turbulent Indigo.” She continues to have a massive following including other recording artist like Janet Jackson. She is one of my absolute favorites. If I could only take two-dozen albums to a desert island with me her “Court & Spark” would be one. Her voice and songwriting ability (she penned the now classic “Both Sides Now”) is priceless. Visit her website at: www.jonimitchell.com