In 1976, music critics were still trying to hold on to the ‘folkie’ genre when referring to Joni Mitchell, but with “Hejira”, she completely abandoned her old style of writing and performing. 

She put together a first-rate band of jazz musicians and wrote complex songs that challenged her fan base. At first, this affected sales, but time eventually revealed the album to be some of her best work. A major ingredient to the change was bassist Jaco Pastorius, who played a fretless bass that provided a distinctive sound miles away from the standard rudimentary rhythm patterns that provided the backbone in virtually all popular music. 

Thematically, the album’s songs convey a lot of traveling and escapism, and those themes provided the album title; “Hejira” is a play on an Arabic word that can be defined as ‘a journey to escape a dangerous situation’. At the time, Mitchell was travelling the country, often solo, after breaking up with her then-partner and drummer John Guerin, looking for a way to start again without suffering the gravitas that usually occurs after a separation. 

Many of the songs specifically refer to her desire for escape. “Amelia” refers to Amelia Earhart, the pilot who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, Mitchell seeing her as a metaphor to her own sense of loss and aloneness, while the album’s title song is a blow-by-blow account of a tour with Guerin and band that was cancelled midway due to the increasing tension between the couple. As usual, Mitchell is extraordinarily open and vividly conveys her personal life and state of mind in song on “Hejira”, but here, the songs carry the weight of loss, and also, the lightness of freedom.

Featured tracks include:

Coyote

Amelia

Furry Sings the Blues

A Strange Boy

Hejira

Song for Sharon

Black Crow

Blue Motel Room

Refuge of the Roads

November 1976 - Billboard Charted #13