The word genius should not be thrown around lightly.  But in the world of contemporary music, few artists qualify more than she does.  Early Joni was folk, or folk tinged rock. Middle Joni was jazz rock, moving on into jazz itself.  Later Joni was even show tunes and experimentation of various kinds.  And she was equally good at all of it.  She could write beautiful lyrics and tunes, play the piano or the guitar, and had an ethereal voice.  I was privileged enough to see her at Dook at the peak of her early period just after the lp ‘Blue’ (still to this day a classic) came out and she was absolutely mesmerizing. You could hear a pin drop in Cameron Indoor Stadium when she played some of these songs.  Here is a nice sampling of some of the early songs in a nice BBC recording. She needs no augmentations, additions, enhancements, editing. And for good measure I also give you one performance she did with my home boy James Taylor of Chapel Hill N.C.   Enjoy— BW3