1. All I Want 2. My Old Man 3. Little Green 4. Carey 5. Blue 6. California 7. This Flight Tonight 8. River 9. Case of You 10. Last Time I Saw Richard

Joni Mitchell would go on from this `71 recording to make more popular, more ambitious, and more challenging albums, but she s never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian thrush summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it s also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as All I Want, Carey, California, and A Case of You work equally well as poetry and pop music. --Steve Stolder

#Unbelievably sweet (2008-10-21) Although it s almost forty years old, this album sounds so fresh. Mitchell s guitar and piano is wonderfully fluid. And then there s her voice. An instrument so fine, the notes send shivers down the spine. Part of the mystique of this album is the honesty, even fragility of emotions. But there s just as much artistry in Joni Mitchell s Blue. A melancholy beauty. A well-worked gem of an album. The kind of music I remember hearing in kitchens with granola in the cupboard. Or at dawn just as the first birds start to sing. Frost on the grass.

#Probably the Greatest Album.. Ever. (2008-07-05) Joni Mitchell sings a lot of jazz and her songs are so often layered with whimsy and flutes and seem quite thick. While I am overall, a fan of Mitchell s repetoire, none of her albums have managed to penetrate my soul like her masterpiece, the omnipresent, beautiful, spectacularly sad, rich, and of course, appropriately titled, Blue . Blue is a staple for so many reasons. It captures a kind of nostalgia that someone who, like myself, is too young to experience the cultural movements in the 1960s such as the move to California and ...

#Blue ....The most overrated album of all time! (2008-05-01) It may very well be one of the most overrated albums of all time. Yes, Joni is a legend, yes she is a great lyricist and a great musician but after all the accolades, I have to ask myself does her music talk to me? Does her grating vocal style make me want to listen to 3 consecutive songs without being annoyed. I love Joni and I own all her albums so please don t hang me to dry on this. If you want poetic, sparse, personal folk music with the Joni style vocal meanderings, this is the baby you are looking for. She has...

#Desert island record (2007-10-20) On CBC radio there once a program on which people chose the 5 records or books they would take with them if the were lost on a desert island for the rest of their lives. This album is number 1 on my list of 5 I would take with me. I could listen to this album every day, no problem. Joni Mitchell is a genius, plain and simple.

#the most addicting album ever (2004-07-15) ",Just before our love got lost you said, I am as constant as a northern star, and I said, constant in the darkness, where is that at? If you want me I ll be in the bar. . . ", -Case of You, BlueIt takes alot for me to listen to an album over and over and over and over. . . and still not get sick of it. i ve had ",Blue", for about 3 years and Joni still makes it into my cd player more than once every few days. There are at least 2 songs that most passerbyers would recognize: ",California", and ",River",, but m...

1. Jingle Bells - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 2. Let It Snow - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 3. Christmas Song - Diana Krall 4. Winter Wonderland - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 5. I ll Be Home for Christmas - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 6. Christmas Time Is Here - Diana Krall 7. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 8. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Diana Krall 9. White Christmas - Diana Krall 10. What Are You Doing New Year s Eve - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 11. Sleigh Ride - Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, , Diana Krall 12. Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep - Diana Krall

As the song goes, Merry Christmas has already been said many times, many ways. Diana Krall s Christmas Songs is a worthy--though not particularly unique--addition to the holiday catalog. On it, she excels with an approach mastered long ago: elegant delivery that gives extra polish to a very familiar lineup. Some might find her style frosty at times, but that will come as a relief to those who want their carolers to cut through some of the holiday treacle and create a festive, yet grown-up vibe. And Krall does show off her playful side with little, personal touches. In Winter Wonderland she promises to frolic and play the Canadian way, which should draw smiles from her native land. (That ll mean toasting the holiday with Molson, eh?) Elsewhere, she ends Jingle Bells with the girlishly giddy statement, I m just crazy about horses. Well…,can t argue with that. --Leah Weathersby

#Simply excellent ! (2007-12-17) Diana Krall has come up with a perfect Christmas album. The selection of material is flawless and loaded with classics - which, let s face it, is a key element in a Christmas record. Most of the songs on the album were recorded with a big band, which brings out the best in Krall, the result is slick, flawless and will perfectly suit your holiday season. When she turns down the tempo for piano-and-vocals ballads, it s intimate enough to make you feel as though she s sitting in the room with you. The highlights are Jingle bells, Winter wonderland, What...

#Wonderful (2006-06-29) this is a wonderful album to add to your Christmas stash!!Diana can really feel music, and we as a listener reap the benefits of this gift. She is just one more great voice of this generation. . . so many now with Diana, Nora, Michael B, Harry C. and still one of my favs, Tony Bennett. . . . Keep this wonderful music coming everyone, as we will keep on buying your beautiful music.

#3.5 stars (2005-12-22) Great CD if you need xmas tunes for the holidays. Much nicer than the usual crap out there. Problem with this CD is that every time you turn on the radio it s being played. As usual with her CDs her voice has been butched by the studio/producer, (typicial echo overlay). If you want to hear her real voice see her live, and even then it s still a bit wonky.

#This is not a review (2005-12-08) Don t buy from CAIMAN USA. Very bad services.

#Bad Photo (2005-12-05) Photos are subjective, but i think Diana needs to find a new photographer, it looks like she fell in this chair and is finding that s it s hurting way too much. What a waste of an image on a high class act. ORC

1. Court and Spark 2. Help Me 3. Free Man in Paris 4. People s Parties 5. Same Situation 6. Car on a Hill 7. Down to You 8. Just Like This Train 9. Raised on Robbery 10. Trouble Child 11. Twisted

Painter-turned-folksinger Joni Mitchell had slipped stark saxophone solos into her prior album, For the Roses, and her singing had often hinted at a capacity for bluesier fare than her guitar- and piano-framed confessional ballads offered. None of those hints prepared fans for this sudden, expansive shift towards a much larger canvas--a sleeker, orchestrated pop style pulsating with jazz elements. Court & Spark found Mitchell casting aside her earth mother affectations and revealing herself as the thoroughly modern, thoroughly complicated woman she is, the songs sustained familiar preoccupations with relationships but replaced courtly settings and naturalistic imagery with recognisably modern locales. Deeply romantic, constantly questioning, classic tracks like the title song, Help Me, Free Man in Paris, Same Situation and Raised on Robbery display a more liberated Mitchell, ready to rumble with unbridled electric guitars (guest Robbie Robertson on ...Robbery), even willing to poke fun...

#HIt me with your best shot (2007-07-31) Though the Top 40 hits Help Me and Free Man in Paris are worth the price of this CD, Court and Spark, as a whole, is a great arrangement of tunes released during what is perhaps the Golden Age of Songwriting. Not your typical folk Joni Mitchell material, this is essentially her jazz phase release, some might say that it is her signature piece. I would not dare go that far, but it is not surprising that it was her biggest chart success, because it blends so well with the music of the other great artists of the time, namely Carly Simon, Carole Ki...

#Joni sells out (2004-07-06) Pretty provocative title, eh? Well, Joni did sell out, but she was one of the last to do so, and when she did the whole hippie thing had been over for some time anyway. But no doubt when this album arrived in 1974, it was the death nell for many hangers-on (except Neil Young) that the revolution, the counterculture movement, the attempt to get ourselves back to the garden, was certifiably defunct. In retrospect the tracks seem more innocent, but in the lyrics Mitchell herself alludes to a change that has come. From Free Man In Paris we have the disap...

#wistical (2004-05-21) This music was the soundtrack for an all-too-brief courtship in northern Arkansas in 1975-76. I have evolved beyond the person I was then but not beyond this timeless music or beyond the influence of the woman I met on the Norfork Lake ferry. That love sparked a string of serendipities and synchronicities that continue three decades later. ",Court and Spark", could not have been equalled by any other music for the poetic commentary it provided to that interlude and my second birthing.

#It s Springtime Again!! (2004-04-20) I just got reading a eulogy for drummer John Guerin, who was the drummer on this masterpiece by Joni Mitchell. No song in the world makes me think of spring more than ",Help Me. ", John Guerin s amazing drumming make this the perfect, floating out-of-body-experience song. I have heard this song thousands of times in my lifetime, but every single time I do, I marvel at its breeziness, as if I m hearing it for the first time. So the next time you have a second to relax, put on ",Court and Spark", and drink a toast to John, for t...

#The Only Joni Mitchell Album You Will Ever Need!!! (2004-03-30) Throughout all of her albums, Court & Spark is probably my favorite Joni Mitchell album. Court & Spark is Joni s experimentation with rock, jazz, and pop. This was a big change for Joni back in the 70 s, but Court & Spark was a commercial success. It sprawled singles like ",Help Me",, (which is my favorite one by her), ",Free Man In Paris",, and ",Court & Spark",. The musicians have alot of energy on this album. Joni s guitar hooks are improved, but it s not the best. I perfer her best are the...

1. The House is Haunted By The Echo of Your Last Goodbye 2. Charade 3. I Will Wait For You 4. Waters of March 5. Alley Cat Song 6. Larger Than Life 7. Be Careful, Its My Heart 8. It s Alright With Me 9. You re My Thrill 10. Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries 11. Reaching For the Moon

Twenty years into her career, Holly Cole has released a disc that may well have surpassed anything else she has previously recorded. Much of the kudos goes to producer Greg Cohen--famous for working with jazz legends Ornette Coleman and Bill Frisell--who has wisely brought in individual jazz players (rather than a preexisting big band) and let each contribute to the overall sound. The result is an auditory sense of being in an underground New York jazz club, surrounded by world-class instrumentalists and one sultry singer. On past CDs, the Toronto-based Cole often broke up the smoothness by occasionally emitting a Broadway style of singing, taking listeners on a musical ride that was more Liza than lounge. On this self-titled disc, she is unprecendentedly relaxed, her voice languidly drifting along with the musicians rather than trying to sing over them. As a result, tracks such as You re My Thrill and I Will Wait for You are highlighted by her hushed softness, while Life Is Just a Bow...

#Cole at her Best (2007-09-14) Holly Cole in her 9th Studio album, this self titled CD Holly Cole is absolutely stunning. This is her first studio recording since 2004 and it is more than worth the wait. The album on first listen is both haunting and familiar. Cole has tapped the best sounds of her previous, she parades us through the ranges of her voice and style, she draws us in and tosses us out. This album classified as Jazz is a mix of all that is good in vocal jazz, rowdy honky-tonk, to smoky smoldering songs that burn your heart. One of the most stunning tracks is Cole s own L...

#A delight. (2007-03-27) Holly Cole s new album displays the jazz singer s dynamic vocal styles, which shift easily from lackadaisical soul on a devilish cover of Marc Almond s The House Is Haunted By The Echo Of Your Last Goodbye to the controlled, restrained delivery of the pop-folk, Brazilian bossa nova classic by Antonio Carlos Jobim Waters Of March or the emotive, deep lounge timbre of Reaching For The Moon. The material itself has minimalistic moments, but is a fantastic collection of arrangements by Cole recorded with a New York nonet. Some songs, like Cole Porter s It s Alrigh...

#Holly Cole ALWAYS Delivers! (2007-03-20) Unfortunately for other people, they have yet to discover Holly Cole! Even my friends from Canada have no idea who she is. Eversince hearing her version of On the Street Where You Live, I have been an avid fan. Like her previous albums, this new one is a delight. Her interpretations are fluid and sexy!

1. Urge for Going 2. Chelsea Morning 3. Big Yellow Taxi 4. Woodstock 5. Circle Game 6. Carey 7. California 8. You Turn Me on I m a Radio 9. Raised on Robbery 10. Help Me 11. Free Man in Paris 12. River 13. Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody 14. Come in from the Cold 15. Both Sides, Now

She has only had a few bona fide hits, but after almost 30 years, she s finally delivered a 15-song compilation of her signature songs that will be a CD point-of-departure for casual fans and newcomers well into the new millennium. The companion Misses volume is an intriguing curio that might rather more generously have been marketed as a bonus disc. --Jeff Bateman

#The Blonde In The Bleachers (2004-04-28) joni is the blonde in the bleachers to graham nash. . that interesting circle of talented artists that hung around laurel canyon. . . . sharing and inspiring the great american music that followed the Byrds breakthrough. . . joni was one of the matriarchs, along with cass elliot, of that important movement. . . its repeated, crosby stills and nash sang their first official harmonies together at joni s house. . . and joni could easily hang with the boys. . . she could write and chord with the best of them. . . buy this ",Hits", album to ...

#hippie flowerchild Joni Mitchell s Hits (2004-04-23) I love this album. It has many of her early and best songs. I listened to it constantly when I first got it. Several of the songs gave me just the most incredible inner spiritual experience of delight, that almost otherworldly feeling you get when you re deeply moved or stimulated by a work of art, be it a painting, a book, or a piece of music. If you get this ",Hits", album, don t lend it to a friend. I did, and never got it back :)David Rehakauthor of ",A Young Girl s Crimes",

#New Joni Fan (2004-01-18) Ok, so i wasn t around in the late-60 s and early-70 s when Joni Mitchell came onto the scene. So I obviously missed this music the first time around. I ve always been a fan of the singer songwriters of this era such as Carole King, Carly Simon, and Elton John, but seemed to overlook Joni Mitchell *big mistake. * I got this for Christmas and enjoy it very much. I m a teenager so I m not very knowledgable about this type of music, but I love Joni Mitchell s voice and songwriting style. True, she only had four top 40 hits, her biggest being the top 10 hit He...

#Roadmap to Joni Mitchell (2003-11-28) This, like many hits records, offers a decent sampling of what the artist, in this case, the amazing Joni Mitchell, has to offer. Notice I said a decent sampling. For all those out there who want to try Joni Mitchell s music, or just the genre in general- This is for you. Joni Mitchell is such an amazing artist, though- experimenting with severl entirely different sounds somehow without losing meaning or a musical identity- that one collection can never begin to cover her music. If you are already a fan, or own most of Joni Mitchell s music, I ...

#Incomplete, but good for casual fans (2003-11-16) This is a decent selection of Joni s best-known (not best) songs, but it s impossible to do her career justice on one CD. I own all of Joni s albums up until and including Mingus so there wasn t much reason to get this but I wanted to have Urge For Going on CD so, if that s you re only reason for getting it, make sure you find it cheap! Urge For Going is terrific though, classic Joni from her earlier period (my favourite). This song would have fitted nicely on Clouds and it is a nice addition to her catalogue. On another positiv...