Real Name: Roberta Joan Anderson
Born: November 7, 1943
Roberta Joan Anderson [Joni Mitchell] is a Canadian songwriter, musician and painter born on November 7, 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. Joni Mitchell is also a skillful visual artist.
Joan was born in Fort Macleod, Canada and her mother Myrtle Anderson, was a teacher and father Bill Anderson, was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Later the family moved to Saskatchewan and settled in Saskatoon. Joan was stricken by polio at the age of nine and was admitted in a children’s hospital, while recovering in the hospital she got interested in singing and started her career by singing to the other patients. She learnt playing ukulele by herself and later proceeded with the guitar and started performing in parties, gigs and other venues in Saskatoon. Joan got enrolled in ‘Alberta College of Art and Design’ in Calgary and studied for a year.
Joan moved to Toronto in June 1964, where she found out that she was pregnant by her ex-boyfriend. She gave birth to a baby girl (Kelly Dale Anderson) in February 1965. Joan married Chuck Mitchell, a folk singer in 1965 and started performing under the name Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell and Chuck Mitchell moved to Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1965. However they broke up and marriage got dissolved in a year and a half.
Joni Mitchell moved to New York City in 1967 and started performing as a solo artist. Mitchell’s performances in New York City won the major press acclaim for her songwriting skills, innovative guitar style and distinctive vocals. David Crosby (founding member of ‘The Byrds’ and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’) met Joni Mitchell in a club in Florida, ‘The Gaslight South’ and was impressed by her ability as an artist. Joni signed with ‘Reprise records’ and released her debut album ‘Song to a Seagull’ in 1968 which earned David a producer’s recognition.
In March 1970, Joni Mitchell won Grammy Award for her album “Clouds” for the Best Folk Performance of 1969. Joni’s third album “Ladies of the Canyon’ was a continuous hit on FM Radio and marked has her first gold album. Joni stopped performing after this album and continued just painting and writing songs. She was voted Top Female Performer for 1970 by the UK’s pop music magazine. Joni released her next album ‘Blue’ in June 1971. The album gave her a huge success and she stepped again on the stage to give performances. She released several albums which hit the top position on the Billboard album charts.
Joni Mitchell met jazz bassist Charles Mingus in the early 1978 and worked with him in his project, but Charles died before the project completed in 1979. Joni experimented jazz and completed the project. The album “Mingus” was released in June 1979, which topped at number 17 on the Billboard album charts.
Joni Mitchell returned to Calgary in February 2007 and served as an advisor for the Alberta Ballet Company premiere of ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’, a dance choreographed to new and old songs. Joni Mitchell’s friend Herbie Hancock released the album “River: The Joni Letters” in 2007 as a tribute to Mitchell’s work. The album won Grammy award as the ‘Album of the Year’ on February 10, 2008.
Joni Mitchell’s awards include: ‘Billboard’s Century Award’ in 1995, ‘Polar Music Prize’ in 1996, and ‘Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2002. Joni has received nine regular Grammy Awards during her career. In 1997, she was inducted into ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and in 1981; she was inducted into the ‘Canadian Music Hall of Fame’.
Some of her albums include:
- Song to a Seagull in 1968
- Clouds in 1969
- Ladies of the Canyon in 1970
- Blue in 1971
- For the Roses in 1972
- Court and Spark in 1974
- The Hissing of Summer Lawns in 1975
- Hejira in 1976
- Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter in 1977
- Mingus in 1979
- Shadows and Light in 1980
- Wild Things Run Fast in 1982
- Dog Eat Dog in 1985
- Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm in 1988
- Night Ride Home in 1991
- Turbulent Indigo in 1994
- Taming the Tiger in 1998
- Both Sides Now in 2000
- Travelogue in 2002
- Shine in 2007