Judy Collins & Friends: 85 Years of Music & Protest celebrated the legacy of folk singer and social activist Judy Collins. The program at New York City’s Town Hall, held on International Women’s Day, March 8, was much like a live memoir. The three-hour program was rich with anecdotal memories from the 1960s and performances both by her peers and by several younger artists whom she inspired. Stephen Stills, Richard Thompson, Rickie Lee Jones, Paula Cole, Ari Hest, Justin Vivian Bond, and Sophie B. Hawkins were among the many musicians who paid tribute to Collins’ 85 years of music and protest.
Best known in the 1960s for her role as a folk singer and an activist during the anti-war and civil rights eras, Collins recorded her debut album in 1961 and ultimately released 55 albums, including studio, live, compilation, and holiday collections. Collins is also a published author, with the publication of Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss and Redemption coming on March 25. In addition, shr is a filmmaker, an advocate for mental health, and a podcast host.
Judy Collins first performed at The Town Hall in 1964, which resulted in her first live recording, Judy Collins in Concert. Over the past six decades Collins has performed numerous times at the Town Hall, both at her own concerts and at social justice events. These events included various civil rights and anti-war rallies.
Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Russ Titelman produced Judy Collins & Friends: 85 Years of Music & Protest. Collins’ longtime pianist Russell Walden, guitarist Thad Debrock, bassist Zev Katz, and drummer Doug Yowell accompanied her for most of the concert. (Though promoted as an 85th birthday concert, the date was closer to her 86th birthday this coming May 1.)
Photos by Sachyn Mital
In scattered snippets, Collins shared insights into the earliest days of her own sojourn. She started in music as a piano prodigy at age 13. At that age, she played piano with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. At 16, she was inspired to pursue singing when she heard Jo Stafford sing “Barbara Allen.” In 1961, she relocated to New York City and became friends with Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as Pete Seeger. In 1962 she opened for Theodore Bikel at Carnegie Hall.
In tracing her unique history, the singer-songwriter off-handedly shared engaging anecdotes. Sober since 1978, Collins said that in her youth she was not experimenting with recreational drugs because, “I was afraid they would interfere with my drinking.” Her friend Al Kooper (Blood, Sweat and Tears) connected her on the telephone at 3:00 a.m. with a “hot girl he met in a bar” who wrote great songs; after hearing Joni Mitchell sing “Both Sides Now” over the telephone, Collins recorded the song the next day. Collins was present when Bob Dylan was writing “Mr. Tambourine Man” in 1965, and was the first person to hear the song. She met Leonard Cohen when he was a poet and novelist; she encouraged him to become a singer-songwriter when he sang “Suzanne” for her – “That’s a song,” she reportedly said to him.
Accompanied by her 12-string acoustic guitar and her band, Collins opened the evening with “Mountain Girl,” Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” “John Riley,” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” She and the musicians then exited the stage so that the guests could perform their tributes, but the start of the night later came back to perform more songs from her recording history. She performed “The Blizzard” solo on piano, “Strangers Again” with Ari Hest, Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” with Richard Thompson, Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Helplessly Hoping” with a barely audible Stephen Stills. The entire cast returned to the stage for what seemed to be an under-rehearsed “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” which Stills wrote about Collins, yet when she coaxed him to sing lead, he declined. Awkwardly, the musicians played, and members of the audience sang in the void.
For more than 60 years, Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social justice. Now approaching her 86th birthday, she remains as vibrant as ever, with her vocals and her showmanship holding steadfastly at the top of her game. Judy Collins & Friends: 85 Years of Music & Protest proved to be a fitting tribute to Judy Collins’ legacy as a musician and social activist.
Photo by Sachyn Mital
