Karen O'Brien: Joni Mitchell: Shadows and Light

By GRAHAM REID

While not quite "the definitive biography" that the subtitle claims, this well-researched look at the life of one of popular music's most interesting and astute lyricists and musically diverse artists has that great virtue of marrying the private life with the public music, rather than the most common rock-bio path of rewriting press releases with some minor-league album reviews along the way.

Former Kiwi O'Brien pulls her punches about Joni's sometimes complex emotional life, but she views Mitchell through a contemporary lens, doesn't underestimate the importance of Mitchell's painting in relation to the music, and provides a fine overview of someone who created her own proto- then post-feminist archetype.

Recommended to old fans and new, especially those confused by Mitchell moving into jazz textures in 1979 with the Mingus album, which seems inevitable in retrospect for someone who truly deserves the appellation "artist".

Reed

$54.95