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Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell
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About This Book
For decades Joni Mitchell's life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians—from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile—and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as—with the other arm—she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered whether there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer's childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell's musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell's collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life.
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Reviews
"eading Powers is like hearing one of Mitchell's signature open tuning chords, an adaptation she developed because of polio's effects on her left hand."
"It is a great compliment to Powers's ebullient style that her accruing sense of fatigue and wonder around her subject never reads as less than fascinating."
"The result is a brilliant and personal distillation of a singular artist."
"Powers has crafted a travelogue of one of the greatest artistic journeys ever taken, and it's a pleasure to go along for the ride."
"Experiencing this book is more akin to wandering down a scenic path than traveling a timeline of someone's life, and there is no other musician better suited for this style of biography than the ever-changing Mitchell."
"A top-notch music critic set loose on a worthy subject."
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