thanks for your great post garret & for clarifying what you & steve & others mean when you talk about joni being underrated...i think it is so incredible that so many people around your age have found joni's music because these days you really do have to find her on your own with no help from the media...it is a remarkable testament to her artistry that her work holds up decades later & that people of all generations are such avid fans of her work...this is quite rare i think....& yes, i can see why she would be considered underrated to folks your age...but i'm preaching to the choir...
i hope my post wasn't dismissive to anyone as i do understand this perception...i always feel that i want to chime in on this subject as i am one who grew up with her music so to speak & in those days she was IT...it is wonderful that you are turning so many people on to her...i can understand why most of the artists you mentioned would be more well known to your friends as they emerged more recently than joni (with the exception of dolly...also you could say that rem, stevie n, cyndi l & kate b have been around for quite some time but still they emerged much more recently than joni) in my world (which is admittedly not an accurate cross section of the general population)... joni still reigns supreme...but my world is made up of mostly songwriters & musicians, most of whom can play a few joni tunes! however i must admit that the folks on this list are far more sophisticated in their ability to play & sing a wider array of her songs which include not only her older work but also much of her more recent... when i joined this list i soon found out how little i knew about so much of joni's music compared to folks on this list...which leads me to the thread of how i discovered joni...well it was pretty much from the beginning when her first record was released...the first song i ever learned of hers was the first song off her first record ... i had a king...like many i kind of fell away when she released mingus (but i fell away from so many things during that time...another story altogether) but returned with joy when she released chalkmark in a rainstorm & have stuck around ever since! i regret not seeing her tour when she came to town with pat metheny but when she returned a few years later (married to larry at that time) i broke into my piggy bank & went to see the show...i was in heaven getting to see my great mentor for the first time in my life...i remember how cool it was seeing her so so joyously in love & seeing her as a more seasoned & mature artist was inspiring...then i saw her again when she toured with bob & van...it was one of jeff & my first dates (he wanted to see bob, i wanted to see joni & she did not disappoint! what i didn't expect was for bob to be so rockingly superb so it was a great show & now jeff & i are married & i drag him to jonifest! so far there is no bobfest but maybe one of these days...lol) ******************************************** Kate Bennett: www.katebennett.com Sponsored by Polysonics/Atlantis Sound Labs Over the Moon- "bringing the melancholy world of twilight to life almost like magic" All Music Guide ********************************************
