Music That Heals Wounds: Joni Mitchell
BY MICHAEL TENZER I JULY 31, 2008

PHOTO BY ROBINSON

Listening to a Joni Mitchell album is a therapeutic experience. When the soul is tired and weary of the rapid, unforgiving world, Mitchell has the wondrous ability to calm and caress. Her acoustic guitar washes and intricate plucking provide such a warm, meditative serenity that the mind gladly takes residence within its colorful patterns. Mitchell's vocal inflection is a wavering mixture of silken husk and falsetto-esque timidity. The way she is able to knit together reflective, intimate observations on love, celebration, travel, and loss is nothing short of astounding. Her words often act as photographs from her life's many adventurers, and she easily conjures distinct images from them.

A sense of immense gratitude is felt through Mitchell's music. Listening to her desires and regrets as they are wrapped within a delicate, melancholic piano, or a bustling acoustic guitar, you feel as though you are transplanted into these moments as if they were the best memories of your own life, and you are enveloped in them for the duration of each song. Mitchell has that distinct ability, as with all of the greatest songwriters, to simultaneously alleviate your heart of its burdens and your mind of its trivialities. And truly, is there anything better to mend old emotional scars?

Joni Mitchell is an artist that creates beautiful, contemplative musical narratives, and for a painter turned musician, that is pretty damn impressive. Even still, she constructs her songs much like a painting using a colorful palette and a specific image she is trying to capture, perhaps distorted to her personal whims, but endearing and vibrant nonetheless.

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