"One could hardly find a better tour guide into Mitchell's music and eras than Powers . In cracking the jewel-encrusted legends of Mitchell's genius . Powers clears space for a nonhagiographic but largely admiring interpretation of Mitchell's decades of trailblazing and deeply influential music." - Los Angeles Review of Books "Powers is the perfect writer for her subject, and she shows us a far more interesting way to regard Mitchell than the fan's smothering hug. Hers is a loose embrace with the respect for craft that comes from truly understanding what it takes to write a song like 'Woodstock' or 'A Case of You' or 'Come in From the Cold,' as well as a healthy dose of skepticism about the myth of Joni." - Los Angeles Times "Remarkably insightful . Powers proves an adroit codebreaker for the uniquely complex cross-pollination of romantic ennui, class consciousness, spiritual striving and occasional narcissism that characterizes the full sweep of the Joni Mitchell enterprise." - Washington Post "Luminous, knotty and timely.

Ms. Powers hardly misses a trick. Every time I felt I might be one step ahead of her, the other shoe happily dropped on the next page." - Wall Street Journal "Ann Powers does [Mitchell's] complex legacy justice, and then some, in this essential book." - ZYZZYVA "Powers traces Mitchell's origins, influences, significance, and social and cultural contexts with crisp, insightful detail, delving into the pathways that forged Mitchell's legacy and legend . There's magic in Powers's fluid and lyrical prose" - Shelf Awareness "Traveling is a monumental biography--revelatory and compassionate." - Elizabeth DeNoma, Executive Editor, DeNoma Literary Services "A dazzling portrait of a legendary musician." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The Joni Mitchell book we've all been waiting for.

Ann Powers gives us a brilliant guided tour through the history, myth, and music of an icon. Traveling provides a seemingly unending supply of treats: canny critical assessments of Joni's beloved catalogue; fascinating nuggets of history; immersive descriptions of the American scene; feminist revisions of received Joni wisdom. And did I mention it's funny? Powers writes with great wit, imagination, and vulnerability, unpacking her own relationship to Mitchell, and to rock music itself. I absolutely loved this book." - Claire Dederer, Bestselling author of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma "Thick with the funk of making folk, Traveling climbs from deep sigh to primal scream and then takes a glorious, long way home. This is Ann Powers' intimate, fortifying, and sometimes soul-crushing story of how life becomes songs, how songs chart lives, and how Joni Mitchell became Joni Mitchell." - Danyel Smith, author of Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop "An exhilarating ride down the lonely roads where Joni Mitchell has led the way. Ann Powers, the most brilliant of music critics, illuminates so many different sides of the artist--the ambitious young folkie, the rock star, the timeless fan obsession--with poetic ingenuity.

For anyone who's ever been transfixed by a Mitchell song, Traveling is full of fresh revelations and insights." - Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles "A smart critical romp." - Boston Globe.