Joni Mitchell

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell would feel comfortable unleashing her inner demons only in a format like this: Her longtime friend and colleague Malka Marom--who met Mitchell for the first time in 1966--conducts a course of interviews over several years, serving more as Mitchell's confidante than interlocutor. At times, the women come off like a chatty coffee klatch, freely dishing and swapping intimacies, a tone that may leave listeners feeling like they're outside of the conversation. But Carrington MacDuffie, a vocalist in her own right, carries the load well, capturing the pair's chummy tone as they swap heavily female-centric insights and engage in poetic free flights. Given Mitchell's well-known shy nature, this is the closest her fans are going to get to a tell-all bio anytime soon. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine