Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Joni Mitchell (born Roberta
Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta), is
a Canadian-born American musician and painter. Initially working
in Toronto and western Canada, she was associated with the
burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City.
Through the 1970s she expanded her horizons, predominantly to
rock music and jazz, to become one of the most highly respected
singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. A painter who had
also dabbled in piano, guitar and ukulele since childhood,
Mitchell took her surname from a brief marriage to folksinger
Chuck Mitchell in 1965. She performed frequently in coffee
houses and folk clubs and became well known for her unique style
of songwriting. Personal and often self-consciously "poetic",
her songs were strengthened by Mitchell's extraordinary wide-
ranging voice (with a range in pitch at one time covering over
four octaves) and unique guitar playing, tuning the instrument
in unorthodox manners to pr