In 2000, Joni Mitchell offers a magnificent tribute to the Jazz standards's repertoire, as recording a new album that she named after of one of her finest compositions, Both Sides Now. A title re-interpreted for the occasion with the help of a symphony orchestra (the piece appeared originally in the album Clouds in 1969).

Again, the intelligence of the purpose challenges the mind, as its depth moves the heart : the selection of songs evokes the chronology of a passion, with the foundations of first love (You're My Thrill) up to the ruins of the break (Stormy Weather) and the renewal of life that finally -hopefully-, wins. Followed by the desire to love again, a love that will flower again one day if all goes well (I Wish I were in Love Again).

Across the tracks from the album, Joni Mitchell looks back on her own life, giving the two tracks she selected out of her own repertoire the most poignant and beautiful treatment that one ever heard (A Case of You et Both Sides Now).

Between 2000 and 2007, Joni Mitchell seems to disappear from public view for good, to the despair of those who followed her for so many years. With the exception of Travelogue, through which Joni Mitchell revisits her catalogue in some sort of "Hejirian" musical journey.

A disc coloured by a definitely Jazz approach, updated with her voice of then and accompanied by a symphonic orchestra (as it happened with Both Sides Now). It should be noted that Travelogue features a magnificent re-interpretation of The Last Time I Saw Richard, in the same intentions and mood as what she did with the compositions Both Sides Now and A Case of You (in the previous Both Sides Now release).

And it is also noteworthy that before these two records, a "Best Of" appeared in 1996 (unique in Mitchell's discography) under a quite original articulation : a two discs set, mischievously entitled Hits and Misses. Hits gathered a selection of the best known songs from Joni Mitchell’s catalogue, while Misses focused on songs which "could have made it", in addition to others that the musician particularly valued and which did not meet a status of legend in her repertoire. Among the series of compilations that were released after, Songs From A Prairie Girl proves to be indispensable, if only because this compilation shows new samples of the "frozen lake" photo session, which gave birth to Hejira's artwork masterpiece when showing Mitchell iceskating on some wintery lake. And also because it offers a superb remastered version of Paprika Plains where Joni Mitchell has deleted the phrase "I've got to get some air", which originally figured in the Don Juan's Reckless Daughter's original released version.

But like the "scorpio" woman she claims to be (her astrological sign), stimulated by adversity, and like any true phoenix rising from his ashes, Joni Mitchell moved back to full light with Shine, a flaming twilight in the image of the Indian Summers that ignite the territories where the musician was born.

If Joni Mitchell did not mince her words in Dog Eat Dog, with Shine, anger and despair appear to be the major feelings that present times inspire to the Lady of Saskatchewan… and rightfully so. Terrorism spread by religion, which betrays its alleged mission ("Holy War, Genocide, Suicide, Hate and Cruelty ... How can this be holy? If I had a heart, I'd cry" (If I Had A Heart I'd Cry / Shine - 2007)… Bombs, wars, extended pollution, extinction of animal species...