Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell
born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943

"Few contemporary voices have aged more shockingly than Joni Mitchell's. The craggy alto on ''Both Sides Now,'' her intermittently magnificent new album of standards (including two of her best-loved original songs), is so changed from the sweetly yodeling folk soprano of her earliest albums that it hardly seems possible the two sounds could have come from the same body.

In refusing to fight or try to camouflage the ravages of time, Ms. Mitchell belongs to an interpretive school that includes Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, whose vocal deterioration brought them greater emotional depth and realism."

[Excerpt of New York Times article "Something's Lost and Something's Gained" by Stephen Holden, published February 13, 2000. Many Happy Returns, Ms. Mitchell!]