Joni Mitchell, who describes herself as a "singing poet" is blue-eyed, blonde and 25.

She has come a long way since she began to appear in coffee houses while studying commercial art in Calgary. (At that time her name was Roberta Joan Anderson).

She decided to attend the Mariposa Folk Festival and it was during the three-day train trip to Toronto that she wrote her first song, Day After Day. Following an unsuccessful marriage to folksinger Chuck Mitchell she made her way to New York after living for a time in Detroit.

In New York she was recognized as a talented songwriter. Big-name singers performed and recorded her songs. Gradually she has established herself as a singer as well as a folk poet. She was the hit of the Miami Pop Festival last January and her latest album had an advance sale of 100,000 copies a month before its release.

She makes her home now in a ramshackle house in Laurel Canyon near Los Angeles.

Joni also has delighted Ottawa audiences and she'll be back Monday for a concert in the Capital Theatre sponsored by the Treble Clef. It begins at 8.30 p.m.