A couple years ago someone gave me a book called, "Solo. Women Singer-Songwriters in their Own Words". I just opened it up today. Each chapter is the distillation of an in depth interview with a woman singer-songwriter. It's no big surprise Joni's influence on this generation of songwriters was far-reaching. Nonetheless, I enjoyed what some had to say and thought I'd share...
"Joni Mitchell says that songs are like childrenI was hanging out with these kids who were listening only to current indie musicI'd ask if they listened to Joni Mitchell. They'd say, "No, and we don't want to listen to her". Yet they loved Sebadoh and Lou Barlow. Lou Barlow adores Joni Mitchell; without her influence he wouldn't be writing the songs these kids love so much. And then there are any number of indie musicians writing songs inspired by someone like Lou Barlow who don't even realize they're producing songs that are the grandchildren of Joni Mitchell's songs. They haven't listened to her work. It's important to know the history behind what you're doing as a musician, to know where your songs come from, whose children and grandchildren they are." --Mary Lou Lord "...Joni Mitchell was so important to me. When I first heard her, I knew that there was somebody who felt one thing and then another, just like I did. That's what made sense to me; feeling all kinds of different things and analyzing the hell out of them. In Joni Mitchell's songs, for all the feeling, you never get the sense that someone's simply opening her veins and bleeding all over you because the writing is so amazing. There is something very inviting, poetic, and beautiful about her work. But her music is defined by feeling and analysis rather than a rock and roll attitude. Because of that she was really important to me."--Shawn Colvin "I really started to listen to music seriously when my brother turned me on to Joni Mitchell's Blue at fourteen, right at that time when I was really ready to hear it. That definitely changed my life. There was something completely captivating about how personal the songs were. I loved her singing. I wanted to be her, to sound like her. In fact, I recently listened to a tape I made when I was with a group in Chicago a few years later. I was trying so hard to sound like Joni Mitchell that I was embarrassed to listen to myself." --Lucy Kaplansy Sheryl Crow, Jonatha Brooke, and Cassandra Wilson also gave nods to Joni. Jenny Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
