Travelling by Ann Powers review – a dazzling life of Joni Mitchell

A sweeping study of Mitchell’s life and work that swerves familiar touchstones to create a vibrant, multi-faceted portrait

She felt like a cellophane wrapper on a packet of cigarettes. Every Joni Mitchell fan has heard this description before; it’s how the mercurial artist summed up her naked emotional state while writing her 1971 album, Blue. “It’s virtually impossible to find an account of Blue from the last 50 years that doesn’t include that quote,” writes music critic and author Ann Powers, whose new study of Mitchell doesn’t have much interest in retreading well-beaten paths. “Resist the rush you get imagining Joni’s pain,” Powers instructs. “Where songs start is not that important.”

Travelling is a sweeping study of Mitchell’s life and work that swerves familiar touchstones to create a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of a music enigma. Powers didn’t interview Mitchell. “In this way, I remain a witness, not a friend,” she writes. Yet there are more than two dozen interviews with the artist’s associates including David Crosby, Judy Collins, recent collaborator Brandi Carlile and Mitchell’s ex-husband Larry Klein. With the exception of Mitchell, the book’s most memorable character might be Powers herself, writing in the first person. She is an authoritative and witty companion as Travelling ranges through Mitchell’s life from Saskatoon in Canada to the hills of Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, with stopovers in the beatnik bars of Coral Gables, Florida, and the roadtrip bars captured in the 1976’s album Hejira.

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