Joni Mitchell

Biography

Mitchell is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and painter whose works helped define an era and a generation. Her lyrics are notable for their developed poetics that address social and environmental ideals alongside of personal feelings. At the age of 8 she suffered through polio and at 22 she gave up a baby because she was dirt poor, destitute and living in a rooming house. At 34, they reunited. Mitchell won her first Grammy for her 1969 album, Clouds, her second studio album (after Song to a Seagull in 1968). She has won four more Grammy Awards since then, in several categories, including traditional pop and contemporary pop music. Her albums include Ladies of the Canyon (1970), Blue (1971), Taming the Tiger (1998), Both Sides Now (2000), and the compilations Dreamland (2004) and Songs of a Prairie Girl (2005). Mitchell's wide-ranging vocals and her distinctive open-tuned guitar and piano compositions were influenced by rock ‘n roll, R&B, classical music, and non-western beats