Joni Mitchell

Noms: Traditional pop vocal album, Female pop vocal performance\nThe Californian by way of Canada spent the \'70s going from coffeehouse folkie (see her 1971 classic Blue) to respected jazz-folk type singer-songwriter (see her 1979 classic Mingus, a collaboration with the jazz legend). She then spent the \'80s and \'90s making excellent albums with diminishing commercial returns, fading into cult status. Last year she released Both Sides Now, a collection of old standards like \"Stormy Weather\" (and a few of her own nuggets), recorded with a full orchestra. It might have been an attempt to cash in on that whole Diana Krall thang, and it\'s certainly no substitute for a new album of her own songs, but the album still is criminally underrated and undersold.