Joni: The Anthology is a variety of articles, interviews, and reviews collected by editor Barney Hoskyns. It is all Joni Mitchell, all the time. And, even if you aren’t a rabid Joni fan, it’s an interesting collection.

The “chapters” are individual, previously published pieces about Joni Mitchell and her music. Some are more personally focused, but most review her recordings and performances over the years. Following chronological order, it reveals the progression of her career. The reviewers point out the high points, the low points, and the places where she confused her audience with exploration.

As an editor, Hoskyns contributes only one piece. His presence is simply felt in the choice of chapters and the overall organization. These worked for me. The sections break at logical times and the pieces included are strong representations of who Joni Mitchell is and how she’s contributed to music in her lifetime.

Truth be told, it’s my husband who’s been rabid Joni fan since his teens. His interest in her music drew me to this book. Of course we have a collection of her CDs, somehow including two copies of her 2000 CD Both Sides Now, which is pictured above. We also saw Mitchell perform in Camden, NJ when she toured for that album in June of 2000. I still remember driving home from that concert with the convertible top down, singing at the top of our lungs, and the strong honeysuckle smell along the highway.

Joni’s music is the soundtrack of our courtship, including that unique twentieth century phenomenon, a mix tape. Reading this book was more than just musical history for me.

As a writer and reviewer, I reveled in the unique turns of phrase from contributors. Because I’m a student of people, I noticed the way Joni changed as she aged. As a listener, I enjoyed the intense musical critiques. Right off the bat, though, I realized that reading it straight through wasn’t for me. I enjoyed it more a few articles at a time.

My conclusions:
This isn’t a book for everyone. But if you’re a Joni Mitchell fan, it’s a worthwhile investment. It’s a deep dive into her long and storied career. It’s nostalgia and memories, note by note and album by album. I’ll be jamming to some Joni this weekend in honor of completing this book.

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan-Picador, and the author for the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a compilation of interviews, album and concert reviews, and articles by various authors. There probably isn't much new here for fans -- whether due to Joni's somewhat recalcitrant attitude toward interviews or the focus of writers on only certain aspects of her life and work, there was quite a bit of repetition (childhood polio epidemic, identifying as a painter rather than a musician, etc.). It was interesting to read about reactions toward her and her music but, aside from interviews, we don't get much sense of Joni herself.

A decent anthology of Joni Mitchell reviews and interviews that will probably appeal more to fans than somebody wanting an introduction to her

Summary: A retrospective on the life, music, art, and performances of Joni Mitchell through reviews and articles from the popular music press, chronologically organized.

Yes, I went through a Joni Mitchell phase. Part of it was songs like “Woodstock” or “Big Yellow Taxi” that were anthems for my generation. And part of it was that Mitchell epitomized a certain ideal of artistry and beauty–this willowy woman with long, straight blonde hair and high cheek bones who could write and sing, albeit some of her “yodels” were a bit strange! The last Joni Mitchell I bought was The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Her music and my tastes were changing, and not in the same direction. I have to admit that I more or less stopped following her career except for hearing about an album she did with Charles Mingus before he died, one that seemed to be panned by many critics. Then a couple years ago, her name surfaced again when I heard the news that she had nearly died from a brain aneurysm. (At the time of writing, she is still living, has gone through rehabilitation, and made a couple of public appearances).

This new anthology, edited by popular music writer tells the story of Mitchell’s work and life through a collection of music press articles and reviews of her albums and concerts, arranged chronologically. Hoskins writes in his introduction:

“Her words and her ‘weird chords’ you can read about at length in the pieces pulled together in this compendium. Included in Joni are some of the most open and thoughtful interviews Mitchell has ever given, as well as some of the finest snapshots of her complex, often spiky personality. Here are reviews of (almost) all her albums – the consensus masterworks, the curate’s eggs – and of live appearances she’s made in tiny clubs and glitzy concert halls. Here are the words of writers who’ve fallen, as I did, under the spell of her piercing honesty, her tingling musical intimacy, her coolly nuanced moods: Americans and Brits alike, men and women who know how uniquely brilliant she is.”

The collection begins with an article by Nicholas Jennings tracing her life from her beginnings in Alberta and Saskatchewan, her early singing attempts, her time in Toronto’s club scene, her brief marriage to Chuck Mitchell, the recognition of her writing, performed by others like Judy Collins, the move to New York, and then L.A. and her subsequent success in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. We read of her various liaisons, most notably with Graham Nash, and the role David Crosby played in her early work. We learn about her unconventional practice of “open tuning”, her gradual move toward more of a jazz idiom, beginning with Court and Spark, and, after the Mingus album, a decline in the commercial success of her work, until her Grammy award-winning Turbulent Indigo (1994) garnered her renewed attention.

The strength of the articles that follow is that they trace the development of Mitchell’s career from its early days until her last album in 2007, giving us a taste of the mixture of critical opinion about her work throughout her career, and her own increasing disenchantment with a music world that failed to recognize her brand of creativity. I learned of albums I had never heard of, as well as her long relationship with Larry Klein. Nearly all her album covers bore her artistic work, and we learn of her continuing growth and recognition as a visual artist. Throughout her career from 1970 on, we read of periodic retreats from writing and performing (the later she has never enjoyed), with a return to the studio time again, even after her “retirement” in 2002.

The downside of this collection is that, while you get a kaleidoscope of perspectives, you also get a good deal of repetition, particularly concerning her early life. At the same time, Hoskins has unearthed some of the best writing about Mitchell over the course of her career. By not editing out repetitive material, you get the full impact of each piece.

I found myself with mixed feelings about Mitchell the person, who seemed to become more “hardbitten” as she matured, and Mitchell the artist, who developed in some interesting ways, while continuing to do some of the best writing around. I totally missed Turbulent Indigo. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate jazz far more, so I may want to go back to the Mingus album and others. If nothing else, the book filled in the gaps in my understanding of her work and life through some of the best things written about her.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

There is a certain intimacy about Joni Mitchell's songs that draws the listener in. She is a master of her craft and the anthology's editor has written about her life, work, and influences before. Because NetGalley had listed this as a biography I was a bit disappointed that this was a collection of previously published articles.

This book served as my introduction to Joni Mitchell., I appreciated that the collection was ordered chronologically, as it helped me understand how she grew as an artist.. What I didn't love was how repetitive some of the essays were, but I understand that's the nature of compiling a collection such as this.

I would recommend this to someone looking for background on Joni, or an established fan! It was easy to read and even though they were essays/reviews/etc they were very well written. I'm glad I got to read this!

Cigarette smoke seems to curl from the text of this compilation of criticism that will have Joni Mitchell fans dusting off LPs, CDs, and turning to Spotify and YouTube for a new and enhanced appreciation of her work.

In addition to being a thorough catalog of Mitchell criticism, JONI also offers a fascinating overview of rock journalism through the decades as nearly 50 writers attempt to describe the enigma that is Joni. It’s interesting to read how Mitchell’s music was interpreted when newly heard, and the reassessments of her work that came with each new album or declaration of retirement from the music business. Particularly illuminating for this reader was a piece on Mitchell’s collaboration with Charles Mingus, which includes an interview with her about the experience. We learn some specifics of Joni’s distinctive tunings in a review of her songbook, JONI MITCHELL COMPLETE SO FAR. . .

The pieces in which Mitchell speaks for herself are liveliest and most memorable, notably when she confides that, “The anatomy of the love crime is my favourite subject.” And who knew that Mitchell, before she was a singer, was a self-described rock and roll dancer? A work of this nature will, of course, repeat facts and anecdotes about Mitchell’s biography and career, but the pleasure here is on seeing how the legend was created and continues to evolve and grow ever more complicated. Includes contributor bios and an index.

Essential for Joni fans and should be considered core stock for stores with strong music sections and belongs in all public library collections.