I disagree with catspaw49's negative "navel gazer songwriter" comment. For me, Joni - and then Jackson Browne - realy moved personal - "confessional" if you prefer - songwriting on to depths that previous songwriters just couldn't/hadn't approach.
   I admired alot of Dylan's stuff but Joni ... her music has a reality that Dylan's music just doesn't contain. Indeed, compared with Joni, alot of Dylan's stuff has that "journalistic" quality that Dylan once said made up most of Phil Ochs' music.