Jay Swanson, Missoula, MT. I was a senior at Orchard Park High School outside Buffalo in 1968 when I first heard Joni's songs from a friend who had learned to play and sing them by ear. Then I got "Song to a Seagull" and "Clouds." I've been totally enthralled by Joni, throughout her musical evolution, ever since. I guess I would call myself a "true believer" in Joni and her music. I was home from college in December 1969 and went to her concert at Kleinhan's Music Hall. I have felt deeply, almost mystically attached to Joni ever since (and I'm not prone to mystical attachments). I have a crystal-clear memory of her in a floor-length dark green velvet dress, singing "Both Sides Now" in a wonderfully four-square, unadorned, uninflected style, pivoting from side to side, with an emphatic downstroke on her guitar, letting the words speak for themselves, in that effortless, unearthly voice that could do ANYTHING. One of those rare moments in life when you are both transported and totally present and you say to yourself "I am glad to be alive to hear this."