and Miles of Aisles.

Court and Spark (1974), The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) and Hejira (1976). All these are absolutely wonderful records. The next album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977) is less focused but still has some sublime moments.

Of her more recent work I would heartily recommend Both Sides Now (2000) on which she comes over as a 150 gaspers a day "been there and done it" wise old jazz crooner. It's brilliant.

It's a live album showcasing stuff from the 'jazzy years'.

then Hissing Of Summer Lawns (http://open.spotify.com/album/3gUlFM3azK6ZIkKz1zK7Nj)
then Hejira (http://open.spotify.com/album/3Z0qQc09rmk4JYtIaxEx2J)

and in that order too. For me - the *one* would be Hissing of Summer Lawns which is like a critique of life, love, the American dream - and I've always felt is like a musical equivalent of a Robert Altman movie

Like Blood on the Tracks with music by Steely Dan. Only with better lyrics than either

(incidentally - cheeky little debate on the merits of La Mitch below)

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/why-dont-boys-joni

Run, don't walk, to get yourself a copy of Hejira. The greatest album ever made as far as I'm concerned, The standard CD I have sounds stunning, the record being very sparse and beautifully recorded. Everything about Hejira is brilliant.

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns is marvellous too, with Shades Of Scarlett Conquering being a song your collection can't do without; it's all great though. You might want to check out a recent remaster, though, as the early-ish CD I have sounds muddy and too quiet.

Court And Spark was once described by Q as being full of "songs of great elegance and universal appeal" - a description from which I wouldn't demur, except that it may seem like damning with faint praise. I think the standard issue CD sounds fine.

Those three are indispensible; the next two are well worth having too, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus (the latter being, as you may have heard, by some distance her jazziest album). And the live Shadows And Light is worth it just for the exquisite sequence of Amelia - solo by Pat Metheny - Hejira.

After Shadows and Light it's slim pickings. There are only a handful of songs I regard as truly great, and you could safely cherry pick them. Perhaps the list would be something like:

Chinese Cafe
Ethiopia
Come In From The Cold
How Do You Stop?

Going back before Court and Spark, For The Roses is beautiful and rather underrated.

Enjoy your discovering of a consummate artist!

and Clouds is okay. But she tends to grate if she's on for too long. Nice in doses.

Hejira, Hejira, Hejira, Hejira.

If that doesn't do it for you, don't buy any more. It's stunning.

and then Shadows and Light if you think the jazzier period may be the ay in.

Jazz Library episode on this period was excellent-obviously no longer on the iPlayer but the playlist was http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kss3c

but all the above comments sum it up Joni is one of the greatest of all time simple as.

here is one of my favourites

and it's beautiful, profound and utterly magnificent.

http://open.spotify.com/track/0sWXc2HP7INhTEkuUbxJGk

And the Massive has, once again, delivered in spades.

Hejira, Lawns and Court are winging their way to me courtesy of Amazon as we speak (but thanks for the Spotify links as well - I just feel the need to have something tangible to hold/read as I listen).

Carl - special thanks to you - I'd ordered before I read your post but the offer is still much appreciated.

Thanks good people - will report back when I've lived with the albums for a while.

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I have remained been a Joni-less zone. I was only really aware of the drippy Woodstock image which gave me a skewed impression obviously, and Big Yellow Taxi with is appalling laugh at the end that makes my fingernails draw blood from the palms of my hands. I will track down the best suggestions from the local. Cheers everyone.

Has nobody mentioned any of the pre-"Blue" albums yet?

I've never quite been able to love the first two records, but "Ladies of the Canyon" is absolutely superb. That quavering soprano on "Morning Morgantown"! Astonishing.

What a run of albums that was. Everything Joni wrote and sang between 1970 and 1977 was gold - pure gold.

have been trying to figure out what the magnet for the above spam was-"Shadows and Light" perhaps ?

A whole new thread beckons:

Does your picture have its shadows
but lack some source of light
then you need a
G******u light box ...

I thought spam headings were supposed to resemble Fall song titles, not Joni Mitchell's

if you can't find a way in but like one or more of the artists on:

Herbie Hancock's "River: The Joni Letters" (various guest vocalists including Joni herself perform his arrangements of her songs).

or

"A tribute to Joni Mitchell"

there should be something of interest.

Joni Mitchell covers aren't quite as numerous as you might expect, despite the quality of her songs.

Both collections seem to divide opinion markedly like most artist tribute albums or reinterpretations, and certainly have both high and low points, so try through spotify first. The artists aren't always who you'd expect (e.g. Sufjan Stevens, Prince, Bjork, Caetano Veloso, Leonard Cohen), though there are more mainstream choices.

One thing that really startled me here was the way that Tina Turner nails "Edith and the Kingpin", whereas Elvis Costello just plain murders it...

is an atypical track from 'Mingus' but it is worth 79p of anyone's money, fantastic. Another personal favourite is 'The last time I saw Richard' from, yes, 'Blue'. 'Mingus' can be hard at times but it's my favourite Joni album. And if you like that play 'Pirates' by Ricki Lee Jones, just great.

I like Ladies of the Canyon, For the Roses, Court and Spark, Miles of Isles, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Herja and Wild Things Run Fast.

of the acoustic early demos for Hissing Of Summer Lawns doing the rounds online. It provides an absolutely fascinating glimpse "under the bonnet" of her jazzy stuff and is delightful listening in its own right.