Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

Our Classic Americana artist this week is Canadian: Joni Mitchell was born in a small town in rural Alberta and grew up in Saskatoon in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan.

After cutting her musical teeth playing at clubs across Canada, Mitchell relocated to Los Angeles in the 1965 and fell in with the singer-songwriter set in Laurel Canyon. Her debut album, 1968’s Song to a Seagull, was produced by none other than David Crosby. The follow-up album, Clouds, came out the following year and includes Mitchell’s heartbreakingly beautiful song, “Both Sides, Now.” In 1970, Mitchell released Ladies of the Canyon, which includes the hit song “Big Yellow Taxi” and introduced Mitchell to a much wider radio audience.

Gallery: Joni Mitchell early discography

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But it was in 1971 that Mitchell released the album Blue, which is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. In addition to the title track, Blue also features “A Case of You” — which includes references to Mitchell’s native Canada and her love of painting — and the song “River,” which has been embraced as a popular song during the Christmas season. We’ll feature “River” as our Classic Americana pick this week.

Beset by health problems in the 2000s that curtailed her ability to tour and to perform, Mitchell made a triumphant comeback at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, in a performance curated by Brandi Carlile.

Mitchell, now a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., splits her time between Los Angeles and Sechelt, British Columbia, a small seaside town northwest of Vancouver. “L.A. is my workplace,” Mitchell told the Ottawa Citizen in 2006. “B.C. is my heartbeat.”

External Links

Joni Mitchell – official site