Joni Mitchell’s third release finds her moving away from the wistful folk of her 1968 debut and Clouds, branching out into the progressive pop and jazz elements that define her best work. The bright, poppy “Big Yellow Taxi,” the album’s single, is here, as is her epoch-defining “Woodstock,” a soulful, stirring song about the 1969 rock festival that was later covered by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. All of the material on 1970’s Ladies Of The Canyon is uniformly strong, demonstrating the mature style and vision that made the singer-songwriter one of the leading voices of the ’70s. Mitchell’s first classic album, the Platinum-certified effort helped pave the way for its watershed successor, Blue the following year. A hidden gem in one of rock’s most rewarding catalogs!