Join Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins Thursday, March 20 for a virtual Book Club event with Ann Powers, author of an acclaimed new biography of Joni Mitchell.
For decades Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians—from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile — and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as — with the other arm — she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered whether there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting.
In “Traveling,” Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell’s peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer’s childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life.
Ann Powers has been a music critic for more than thirty years, working for NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and other publications. In the decade she has worked with NPR, she has written extensively on music and culture and appeared regularly on the All Songs Considered podcast and on news shows including All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Her books include a memoir, “Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America;” “Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music;” and “Piece by Piece with Tori Amos.” Powers lives in Nashville.
Details:
This event will take place virtually via Zoom.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
6 p.m. CT
Tickets:
$5 for nonmembers
Free for Bob Dylan Center members
