Canadian folk singer Joni Mitchell is getting rave notices from London critics.

She performed before an audience "in an atmosphere heavy with awe and adulation," says The Financial Times in reviewing the Saskatoon artist's two hour Royal Festival Hall concert Saturday.

She held the packed tiers "in her hand, massaged their souls and then released them fulfilled," the newspaper says.

Joni, 26, uses the guitar, piano and dulcimer, an ancient instrument, as accompaniments for her original songs which, The Financial Times says, express "the rather tarnished hippy dream in conventional words and music."

The Daily Telegraph describes her music as "exceptional."

Her "occasional hesitancies served only to reveal the depth from which she draws her inspiration and uncompromising standards she sets herself."

Her songs "shone like a dream world on the edge of childhood memory," the newspaper concludes.