Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Ann Powers; Recorded October 7, 2024 - Did you know that Joni Mitchell’s eighth studio record, Hejira, was inspired by a cross-country road trip Mitchell made to and from the midcoast village of Damariscotta? For decades, Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners, and yet, while Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer with one arm, with the other arm, she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if 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, and 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. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject.