Judy Collins Sings The Stuff Of Folklore, Perfectly

Judy Collins unpacks the dizzying history of the folk movement one musical story at a time. She sings the song her good friend Joan Baez wrote about her relationship with Bob Dylan, the song Collins recorded for Leonard Cohen that gave him the confidence to start performing, the billboard hits of her contemporaries that make aging parents smile with one side of their mouths and, against their better judgment, tell their children stories they'll never believe.

It was an old New York era Collins transported the audience back to on Tuesday night at the Cafe Carlyle. When the lights went down and that flawless voice pierced through the cozy space, it felt like a simpler time when a nice restaurant could serve perfect chicken and mashed potatoes and elegant cocktails without referencing anything and a master pianist was all the backup a good singer-songwriter needed.

Hair swept off her face like white cotton candy, she trilled Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'That's For Me,' nailing notes so high the crowd burst into delighted applause before she was done.

"I can only do that because of my treadmill," she explained.

So began her seamless arrangement of songs loaded with rich memories laid upon wayward anecdotes that often ran right into her music. Collins soared through 'Both Sides Now,' her famous rendition of the song by Joni Mitchell ("She was a tall, skinny blonde from a radical family.") Her own Colorado upbringing was more conventional.

"My father wanted me to be a real musician, so I played Mozart and W.C.," she said. "Then I found folk music." Much to her classical piano teacher's chagrin: "She'd take my hand and look in my eyes and say, 'Little Judy Collins could have gone somewhere!'"

Thankfully, Collins "found these songs on the radio" and made some of her own.

"Leonard Cohen was the one who asked me, 'Why aren't you writing your own songs?'" she said.

Then she drifted into a few lines of 'Suzanne,' the song Cohen wrote for her to sing but instead made him famous, stopping herself just as she got to those oranges that traveled halfway around the world to be fed riverside to Cohen in the summer of 1965. She still had to revisit the Beatles, Jimmy Webb and Stephen Sondheim, after all.

Collins is 70 (she celebrated her birthday in May with a six-week engagement at the Carlyle and has returned for a two-week encore.) Her voice is so perfectly preserved her age might be an afterthought if it wasn't so often her punch line.

"I want to thank all the people that make me look and sound like Judy Collins," she said. She started with Elizabeth Arden.

She's also working on a new memoir about "sex, drugs and rock and roll," a happy departure from her last book which focused on her son's 1992 suicide.

"Some of you may recognize yourselves in some of the crowd scenes," she told the audience with the familiarity of an intimate dinner party's hostess entertaining her guests.

This is how people should grow old: surrounded by friends, lit from within by electric memories and very, very good at something.

An Evening With Judy Collins plays Tuesday through Saturday until October 8 at the Cafe Carlyle, [phone], thecarlyle.com.

WATCH Judy Collins sing 'Suzanne':




WATCH Judy Collins and Joan Baez sing 'Diamonds and Rust':

 

 

Comments

[RadicalRepublican]

Hi Katy,

You are incredibly lucky to have been given the chance to see Ms. Collins. The great ones from the era still sound like magic to me.

[GayIthacan]

I have adored Judy since I was in high school in the late 60s/early 70s. From the first phrases of 'Both Sides Now" (Still my favorite song of all time), I was hooked on that angelic voice and the multi-talented woman behind it.

Keep up the great musical work Judy!! You have legions of admirers whose lives you have brightened!!

A heartfelt 'Thank you!' for all oyu have done - and continue to do!!

[GuitarMaker]

When it was time to go to work I was excited to go to go do what I liked to do.
I thought of where I was on the time line of the rat race and I was sad that you had to leave.
Then thinking I'd rather hang out with you I wished I didn't have a job and we could do something in the evening.
So we couldn't because I had to go to work and I just asked a simple question.
I never gave permission although some how my life at one time was that important.
No its just us and thats fine with me.

[efish22]

I don't know where you got your information but the song Suzanne was *not* written about Judy Collins.

It was written about Suzanne Vaillancourt, a Montreal dancer and then wife of the sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. In fact, there are many references to Montreal in the song.

[BassMent]

Actually, the article says that Cohen wrote 'Suzanne' with Collins in mind to sing/record it, which is absolutely correct. He has stated in any number of interviews that he was hearing her voice singing it as he was writing it.

Nowhere does the article state that 'Suzanne' is "about" Judy Collins.

[efish22]

ooops, you're right. it does say he wrote it for her *to sing*. my mistake.

[BassMent]

Such an amazingly pure and unforgettable voice. She placed her indelible musical signature on so many great songs. My trio performs "Someday Soon" (penned by Ian Tyson), and it's always a treat watching people's faces light up with recognition, as they start to remember the lyrics and, by the final bridge and chorus, they're all singing along... probably remembering as I do the sound of Judy's voice coming from a transistor radio.

"He loves his damned old rodeo as much as he loves me,
Someday soon I'm goin' with him
Someday soon...."

[LarryinMiami]

A true songbird!