NOTE from contributor Dave Gertler: The headline of the whole article (covering many artists) is "Can.Pop" [as in Canadian pop music]. Subhead: CANADIANS ARE STIRRING THEIR OWN BRAND OF MAGIC INTO THE CURRENT POP-ROCK MIX. THE RESULT: STUNNING SOUND AND SWEET, SWEET SUCCESS. Joni's part is just titled JONI MITCHELL.

Joni Mitchell wears her cornsilk hair in bangs over her forehead and in long tumbles down her back. Her expression is tender and wise, as if she understands the world and forgives it, and her voice is irresistibly warm. She lives in elegance in a house in Laurel Canyon, California, surrounded by carved furniture, fresh flowers, colored bottles and an ancient wooden wall clock Leonard Cohen gave her.

With her looks and her lifestyle, Joni Mitchell could be taken for nothing less than what she is -- a lovely, talented, acclaimed folk singer and ballad writer.

She was born 25 years ago in Fort Macleod, Alta., grew up in Saskatoon, and let her love for poetic writing and lyric singing blossom in coffeehouses across the country where she often performed in a duo with her husband, Chuck Mitchell, whom she has since divorced. Her breakthrough as a writer came early in 1968 when such singers as Judy Collins and Frank Sinatra began recording her songs. Her career as a performer took off at the same time, and now, with one already highly successful record and a new one just out, she plays colleges and folk clubs forty weeks of the year, receiving up to $3,000 for one-night concerts.

"When I made my first record, it changed a lot of things," Joni says. "Now I'm so busy. I feel like I'm being pressed very hard by four suitors. But I feel more like a woman now. I used to think I was a teenybopper."