The torch song has long been a vehicle for expression - perhaps American song's most visceral. Two artists in particular have built upon this tradition to express unique outlooks on their lives and the world around them. Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition combines biographical material, artist commentary, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work to reveal the power of authorship and the creative drive necessary to negotiate an artistic vision in the complicated mechanisms of the commercial music industry