0611. Joni Mitchell
Hejira

Back for the third time, but scaring the hell out of me by sounding like the mold Sheryl Crow was cast in (well, at least in Coyote - and by the way there seems Crow's copied some of the ingredients of the story in Furry Sings The Blues for at least one of her tracks).

Like her previous album, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Hejira is a suave production, but with more in common with Blue musically as it's focus is Mitchell's voice and guitar. Of course there's backing instruments (and Jaco Pastorius' bass showing up on a couple of songs doesn't make it wore at all), but they're just that: backing instruments that doesn't intrude.

[Fact check: Speaking of Furry Sings The Blues, the song's about blues-man Furry Lewis, who did not appreciate being made the focus of it as he'd met Joni for what he thought would be just a nice conversation, and not the set up for a song.]