Ladies Of The Canyon (Remastered) Joni Mitchell

• 1 Morning Morgantown 03:13
• 2 For Free 04:31
• 3 Conversation 04:27
• 4 Ladies Of The Canyon 03:33
• 5 Willy 03:01
• 6 The Arrangement 03:34
• 7 Rainy Night House 03:24
• 8 The Priest 03:41
• 9 Blue Boy 02:54
• 10 Big Yellow Taxi 02:15
• 11 Woodstock 05:29
• 12 The Circle Game 04:51
• Total Runtime 44:53

Info for Ladies Of The Canyon (Remastered)

Joni Mitchell's third release found her moving away from the wistful folk of her debut and CLOUDS, branching out into the progressive pop and jazz elements that would define her best work. The music is bright, poppy 'Big Yellow Taxi,' the album's single, is here, as is her epoch-defining 'Woodstock,' a soulful, stirring song about the 1969 rock festival that was later covered by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. But the material on Ladies of the Canyon is uniformly strong, demonstrating the mature style and vision that made her one of the leading voices of the '70s. Ladies of the Canyon songs On songs like, 'Conversation' and the title cut, Mitchell's lyrics begin to turn toward to the quirky, personal poetry of interior landscapes, focusing with a writer's eye on scene, detail, and the dynamics of human relationships. Ladies of the Canyon album Her instrumental palette is broadened too, with colorful, textured arrangements that make greater use of piano, as well as strings, reeds, electric keyboards, and percussion. Some songs, like the sweet, chiming 'The Circle Game,' seem a bit naïve, but these are counterbalanced with darker songs like 'The Arrangement,' a stark ballad. In all, Ladies of the Canyon was Mitchell's first classic album, one that helped pave the way for its watershed successor, BLUE.

'Joni Mitchell's third album offers a bridge between the artful but sometimes dour meditations of her earlier work and the more mature, confessional revelations of the classics that would follow. Voice and guitar still hew to the pretty filigree of a folk poet, but there's the giggling rush of rock & roll freedom in 'Big Yellow Taxi', and the formal metaphor of her older songs ('The Circle Game', already oft-covered by the time of this recording) yields to the more impressionistic images of the new ones ('Woodstock'). The dark lyricism of her earliest ballads is intact (on 'For Free' and 'Rainy Night House'), yet there's a prevailing idealism here that sounds poignant alongside the warier, more mature songs to come on Blue and Court And Spark.' (Sam Sutherland)

Joni Mitchell, guitar, piano, vocals
Jim Horn, baritone saxophone
Teresa Adams, cello
Paul Horn, clarinet, flute
Milt Holland, percussion
Saskatunes, vocals

Recorded at A&M Studios Hollywood California
Engineered by Henry Lewy
Producer by Joni Mitchell

Digitally remastered

Joni Mitchell began as the archetype of the folkie female singer-songwriter, an heir to Joan Baez. But she quickly moved forward, incorporating influences from jazz and the blues. 'Joni Mitchell heard Billie Holiday sing 'Solitude' when she was about nine years old — and she hasn't been the same since,' says Herbie Hancock. Those lessons of emotional vulnerability are evident in her delicate soprano trill, as well as in the undisguised wear of the sultry voice of her later work, punctuated by her jazzy syncopation. 'Joni's got a strange sense of rhythm that's all her own,' Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone. Above all, Mitchell won't be boxed in. 'The way she phrases always serves the lyrics perfectly, and yet her phrasing can be different every time,' Hancock says. 'She's a fighter for freedom.' (Source: Rolling Stone Magazine)

This album contains no booklet.