Excerpt from the Cougar Cry music review column

Something would be sadly amiss from the pop music scene without an album from Canada's best female songwriter-performer Joni Mitchell. Therefore, I was happy when her excellent follow-up to last year's "Hissing of Summer Lawns" was released. "Hejira" (Asylum 7E-1087) is another masterpiece from Joni, whom I almost consider Dylan's female counterpart. I find many of her songs disturbing since some of them almost seem like they were written for me. Tunes like "Coyote," about an overly aggressive male, "A Strange Boy," a song about immaturity, and "Song for Sharon," about a childhood friend, certainly hit home. There is even some auto-biographical material in Miss Mitchell's ambiguous lyrics this time, and a song written for Amelia Earhart. Joni seems to be living out some fantasies this time, as the album cover seems to allude to the song "Black Crow." If you like the songs, you should enjoy "Hejira" -the shortest song runs over four minutes; the longest 8 1/2 minutes. This one grows on you as does every Joni Mitchell album.