Joni Mitchell heard that Sting won a Grammy Award and she had to chuckle.

Sting's trophy was for "Bring on the Night," a live album that celebrated his work with jazz musicians, a hybrid of styles that couldn't be categorised easily.

Mitchell laughed out of irony, at the notion of someone receiving an award for eclecticism from the pop music industry in 1988. When she took that course in 1975 – with her Hissing of Summer Lawns album – it cost her most of her following.

"Anything too different frightens people," the 44 year old singer-composer said by telephone from her manager's Los Angeles office, shortly before the release of her new album, "Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm." "When I began experimenting, people weren't ready for it. Once it's in its second or third generational stages, people can accept it."

That should bode well for Mitchell. "I would think that it would," she said, "but I presented the idea to the record company, and they were initially dubious, thinking it was somewhat arrogant of me to put myself in Sting's league.

"I told them, 'Forget the hype and just look at the music,' Sting is going over my territory, in a way. He and Paul (Simon) and Peter Gabriel, there's a small school of people now to whom – after being a musical outsider for most of my career – I fell I loosely belong. It opens up the airwaves if they play my music adjacent to theirs, it will work."

In Mitchell's case, that may be a lot to hope for. Joe Krause, program director of the Detroit Classic Rock Station WCSX-FM (94.7), is representative of current fan and industry attitudes toward the Canadian born musician. A big fan of hers during the late sixties and early seventies, Krause gave up on Mitchell during the mid-seventies.

"After Court and Spark, I went on my merry way," Krause said. "When she got into 'Hissing of Summer Lawns' and the albums after that, people got lost. In terms of listeners calling up and asking about her they don't really do that any more."

Such is Mitchell's fate, which she admits tests her patience and spirit. During the past year, in fact, it's become even easier for listeners to keep Mitchell in that singer-songwriter bottle. "Thirty-something," TV's hot new yuppie series, has turned her song "Circle Game" into an anthem of angst. Calssic rock and oldies stations meanwhile have kept alive hits such as "Both Sides Now," "Help Me" and "Big Yellow Taxi."

Mitchell, meanwhile, keeps trying to progress, balancing careers in music and art (she paints her own album covers and will exhibit her works in Tokyo in May and June). They're hardly exclusive: "I see music as a painter," she explained. "I think, 'I'm going to draw some dark lines under this passage.' I don't think about the key or the notes or anything like that."

She's stayed current mostly by changing the paintbrushes, incorporating synthesisers or drum machines to colour her songs. Married to musician Larry Klien (who co-produces her albums) for seven years – happily, she says – Mitchell's once lovelorn compositions now deal with world events and political and social issues; on the new album, that includes war ("The Beat of Black Wings"), subliminal advertising ("The Recurring Dream") and the plight of Native Americans ("Lakota").

The pop music industry was hardly what young Roberta Joan Anderson – the child of Alberta farmers – had in mind when she began playing ukulele in college and developed her interest in folk music. She eventually moved to Toronto where she met fellow folkie Chuck Mitchell; they married in 1965 and moved to Detroit.

After making a mark on the Detroit folk scene, and splitting with Mitchell, she moved to New York and was signed by Reprise Records. Her sensitive, introspective songs were a perfect fit with the times. By 1969, she was an established star in the folk rock community.

During the early 70s, Mitchell took a slight turn, fleshing out her sound and adding tinges of jazz to her songs. At the suggestion of drummer Russ Kunkel, Mitchell enlisted jazz players and began the bold musical experiments of Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus, the latter recorded with the dying jazz legend Charles Mingus.

The 80s have found Mitchell back in the pop realm, though most people haven't noticed. She attributes that to poor timing. Wild Things Run Fast, she said, was "a romantic album for an unromantic time." While writing Dog Eat Dog – on which she attacked TV evangelists and Reaganism – she said, "I could feel these world changes coming and was alarmed tow or three years prior to the mass alarm."

Whether it's the right time for Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm remains to be seen. With guest appearance by hot commercial performers and with challenging – though accessible – compositions by Mitchell and Klien, the ingredients for a hit seem to be there.

But it's a question of whether people will listen, or whether they're still stuck in The Circle Game.

"You know," she said, "rock and roll is about youth and sex. Can it mature? That remains to be seen…..

"But I had one grey haired record company executive tell me, 'I don't like anything unless it makes me feel young and happy.' It becomes a question of whether adult themes can get the vote. You can be doing great work, but unless people buy it, you're condemned to obscurity, and it's only a matter of time before that's it for you.

"And if that happens, I might just play the guitar for pleasure. Maybe I'll make a career out of painting, or I'll write short stories. Both are idioms of self expression in which can age gracefully."