 During this era, she lived in a rooming house, directly across the hall from poet Duke Redbird.Without a lot of name recognition, Mitchell also began to realize each city's folk scene tended to accord veteran performers the exclusive right to play their signature songs — despite not having written the songs — which Mitchell found insular, contrary to the egalitarian ideal of folk music.She found her best traditional material was already other singers' property and would no longer pass muster.