Ironically Joni Mitchell and her material were only really brought into perspective and to the notice of most people when Judy Collins, who you might describe as one of Joni's contemporary "rivals", recorded "Both Sides Now" and "Michael From Mountains" on her "Sunflowers" album and later recorded a single of Joni's "Chelsea Morning".

Obviously a few people had heard news filtering across the Atlantic about a young Canadian singer/songwriter who had been performing around Detroit and New York but the rumblings were still only light. Soon afterwards, however, in 1968 in fact, Joni Mitchell released her first album titled "Song For A Seagull" (produced by David Crosby) and from then on her reputation began to grow and grow.

Here, almost overnight, was the emergence of a remarkable talent, a sensitive songwriter who could capture the listener's heart and imagination with every word. A prolific writer whose songs were emotion-filled segments of life, her life, that were instantly plausible and totally free from excess frills and over embellishment.

Since then there's been a certain magic surrounding the name of Joni Mitchell. Each new album becomes an exciting, eagerly awaited event and each personal appearance like a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Roberta Joan Anderson ( as Joni was christened) was born in Alberta in 1943 and later moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan but her main interest at high school was painting. She had a very promising career as an artist and enrolled as a student at the Alberta College of Art and her future seemed settled until she took up guitar, and developed a liking for her new found skills.

But it wasn't until years after that Joni wrote her first song "Day After Day". She wrote it on the way to her first festival at Mariposa, Ontario, after playing dates around local clubs and coffee houses. Following the festival Joni decided to go home and work in Toronto and it was then that she really began to write seriously.

In 1965 she met Chuck Mitchell and they were married. A year later they moved to Detroit and their marriage was dissolved soon afterwards. Her move to Detroit, the tragic break-up of her marriage, and her later escape to the tranquillity of the seaside were beautifully documented on the "Seagull" album. Side one was titled "I Came To The City", which included "I Had A King", the story of the break-up and following confusion, and side two, called "Out Of The City And Down To The Seaside", charting the relief she had found, the track, "Song To A Seagull" showing Joni's new-found freedom more vividly than any other song.

This was a brilliant album and Joni has never written better songs or used her unusual vocal range to better effect. She has produced songs of equal beauty but none to surpass "Michael >From Mountains", "Marcie", "Song To A Seagull" and "The Dawntreader". Her voice was at its best and the songwriting delicate and definite, her voice rose and fell to the deceptively simple sounding lyrics.

Female singers like the late Janis Joplin, Laura Nyro and Melanie all work on emotions but in a vastly different way to the approach Joni uses. She lulls and guides you along on the beauty and softness of her songs, aiming unashamedly straight for the heart rather than an aggressive, sensual attack at the stomach.

This approach paid off and "Clouds" was the next album to cement her reputation. It wasn't the equal of "Seagull" in any respect, lacking the completeness of its predecessor, but containing more delicate songs, melodic word pictures that mirrored Joni's life. "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now" were included but "Tin Angel", "I Think I Understand" and "The Gallery" stole the show.

Joni's latest album "Ladies Of The Canyon", conceived in her home in the beautiful surroundings of Laurel Canyon, was once again an almost unbelievable catalogue of songwriting artistry. This time it revealed more facets of her talents and emotions-love, pain, pleasure and unhappiness were, as always, the ingredients.

"Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" don't really show the real Joni Mitchell, representing her commercial success rather than her aesthetic success, a factor of great importance in her work. "Willy" (the song about her relationship with Graham Nash), "Rainy Night House", "The Priest" and "For Free" represent this side of her talents and have her unmistakable stamp, an uncomplicated message that only the heartless could fail to understand, and that so many can relate to.

Few artists have the ability to consistently turn out such a flow of high quality material and choosing a favourite song is an impossible task. It depends solely on the way you interpret Joni's songs but her frail, helpless and feminine approach have an appeal that is hard to resist.

She has proved by each new album and appearance that she stands as one of the most important songwriters today and when comparisons are made is included alongside Cohen and Dylan and there's no higher praise to be paid than that.

"Song To A Seagull" (Reprise RSLP 6293)
"Clouds" (Reprise RSLP 6341)
"Ladies Of The Canyon" (Reprise RSLP 6376)