Joni Mitchell

Hailing from Alberta, Canada, Joni Mitchell has always been a folk songwriter with a focus for the beauty of nature that she grew up around. This tact has made her one of the greatest, most beloved, and peer-revered songwriters in the history of modern music. From ‘Both Sides Now’ to ‘The Circle Game’, her songs have transcended the generations and inspired everyone from Kim Gordon and Prince to Jimmy Page and Neil Young.

As Mitchell grew up, her main inlet to the arts was through painting. This exposed her to the bohemian world of culture, and soon she taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. However, she contracted polio at a young age and had to develop alternative tunings in order to compensate for her weakened left hand – this became a defining part of her sound as she advanced as a songwriter.

After deciding to become a musician at the age of 20, Mitchell began touring the various Canadian folk circuits. She left Canada for the first time in 1965 with her then-husband, Chuck Mitchell. While playing in the US, she was discovered by David Crosby, who produced her first album, ‘Song to a Seagull’.

This record helped to launch her as a new voice in the folk world. And when ‘Blue’ arrived in 1971, she was cherished as a new hero. However, throughout the latter half of the ’70s Mitchell decided to pursue her passion of jazz, and her sound took on a more experimental approach with full band arrangements. All the same, her star continued to shine and she has ventured into an array of styles with her 19 studio albums to date.

Over the course of that career, she has always been outspoken and somewhat critical of her own generation, labelling them “spoiled” and “selfish”. If anything, though, this is merely a mark of her cognisance and self-awareness that has shone through in her music which continues to inspire millions of fans around the world.