Five Excellent Recent Books Blending Music and Personal Narrative
Music writing often combines the personal, political, and historical in new and inventive ways revealing the interconnectedness of these categories.
joni mitchell
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Winter 2024
PopMatters presents the best new jazz recordings from the winter of 2024 and reflects on the relationship of the Grammys to jazz.
Joni Mitchell’s ‘Court and Spark’ Still Smolders at 50
While the shift from folk to jazz-rock on Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark may seem like commercial ambition, it was layered and signaled a profound change.
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The 30 Best Album Re-Issues of 2023
The year’s best album re-issues include rock legends, essential R&B/soul artists, classic pop, jazz, alternative rock, global beats and so much more.
Joni Mitchell’s Archival ‘Volume 3’ Documents Her Most Fertile Period
Joni Mitchell’s Archives Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is a towering achievement and the live concert performances are a special treat.
Joni Mitchell Ages Gracefully on the Imperfect ‘At Newport’
Joni Mitchell has never needed anything more than an acoustic guitar to get her emotions, intelligence, and entire worlds across to her audience.
Joni Mitchell at Newport: Still Sees Life From Both Sides
Cementing her legacy as pop’s greatest storyteller, Joni Mitchell doesn’t shy away from the grey areas of her work even as her career enters its twilight.
Fact or Fiction: Joni Mitchell’s Debut ‘Song to a Seagull’ at 55
Joni Mitchell’s debut Song to a Seagull is painted with broad brushstrokes she would draw from in different shades throughout her career.
Songs of the Earth: Woody Guthrie to Neil Young
How American folk songs of the Earth, from Woody Guthrie to Neil Young, tilled the soil for the rise of ‘Green Pop’.
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The 20 Best Album Re-Issues of 2022
The year’s best album re-issues include rock legends, foundational R&B/soul artists, classic pop, new wave, alternative rock, global beats and so much more.
Joni Mitchell Went Back to the Land on ‘For the Roses’ 50 Years Ago
In 1972, Joni Mitchell traded the hubbub of the big city for nature’s quiet solitude. There, she wrote an album of unparalleled earthy wonder, For the Roses.
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JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Summer 2022
The best new jazz and creative music this summer features masters Charles Lloyd and Al Foster, experimentalist Tyshawn Sorey, and young cats DOMi and JD Beck.