Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, a veteran singer and songwriter who is popularly known for her biggest hits such as “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Both Sides Now,” is widely considered as folk eminence of the 20th century. Joni Mitchell may stand as the most talented and persuasive female singer of the late 20th century. Joni Mitchell was also known as Roberta Joan Anderson (childhood name) was born in November, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in western part of the Canada. Her father’s name was William Andrew Anderson who was a Royal Canadian AIR FORCE lieutenant and mother’s name was Myrtle who was a school teacher. When she was nine years old, his father resigned from the current job and shifted to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan with his daughter and wife. There he started to do grocery work. Mitchell had more interest in sports rather than academics.

She began learning piano at the age of 7 inspired by her slightly older friend Frankie McKitrick. When Mitchell was just 9 years old along with many other children, Mitchell got contracted by polio in an epidemic, and she was hospitalized. When she was in the hospital she turned her thoughts to her natural talent and considered as a dancing or singing career for the first time; she began performing and singing for the patients by nine she was a smoker she denies the claim that smoking has affected her voice. Mitchell wanted to play guitar, she learnt guitar by her own from a Pete Seeger songbook, but her fingers had been affected by polio so she had to concoct dozens of alternative tunings for her own. Mitchell started to perform with her friends in the vicinity of Waskesiu Lake. Her first performance was on 31st October, 1962, at a Saskatoon club that emphasizes folk and jazz performers.

After finishing her High School studies at Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, she joined Art classes at the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate, and after some time she emigrates from home to continue her studies from the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. After a year she left the college as she felt that the high priority to technical skill over free-class creativity. She continues to perform as a folk musician, playing at her college and local hotel. She also sang for hootenannies and even made some appearance on TV and radio shows in Calgary. In 1964 when she was at the age of 20, she expresses her feelings to her mother that she wanted to become a folk singer in Toronto and so she left Western Canada. While an art student in college, Mitchell got pregnant by her ex-boyfriend.

At that time pills were not easily available in Canada and her boy-friend also refused to marry her so finally she gave birth to Kelly Dale Anderson in 1965, as there was no-other-choice, she gave her child for adoption. After keeping her daughter a secret from the others, and being separated from her over 30 years, Mitchell reunited with her in 1997. A few weeks after giving birth to the child, Mitchell met American folk singer Chuck Mitchell and married him, but they got divorced after two years. In 1982 Mitchell married to bassist Larry Klien, who worked on her album “Wild Things Run Fast.” Klien soon becomes an established music producer and worked on many albums with Mitchell. While the couple worked on Turbulent Indigo, they finally divorced in 1994.

At the beginning of the career, Mitchell’s compositions were very genuine and personal in their lyrical representation. This style was incredible which attracted attention among folk music audiences in Toronto. Joni Mitchell won her first Grammy award for the best folk performance in 1969 for her sophomore album, Clouds which was a blockbuster. Her third album which got too much fame, “Ladies of the Canyon” was a polestar for the folk singer, becoming her first gold album, which consists of the hits such as “Big Yellow Taxi” and “The Circle Game.” Over the past four decades, Mitchell has amassed several Grammys in various categories which include pop music, traditional pop, and lifetime achievement.

Her other successful recordings consist of Blue (1971), The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975), the highly experimental Hejira (1976) and Turbulent Indigo (1994). Mitchell’s songs often deliberate social and environmental values as well as her emotions about romance, confusion, and joy. Mitchell was also honored by the Governor General’s Performing Art Award which was Canada’s highest Honor in the performing arts, in 1996. In January 2007 Mitchell got enlisted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Canada post department also honored Mitchell by releasing a postage stamp of her in June 2007.