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This weeks feature
For more than 45 years Judy Collins has been one of America’s foremost interpreters of folk and popular song, as well as a distinguished writer and performer.
Best known for her versions of standards like ‘Both Sides Now’, ‘Send In The Clowns’, ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ and ‘Amazing Grace’, Judy has, throughout her career, embraced many different styles, from show songs and pop through to folk. It’s something she puts down to a childhood growing up, as she puts it, “in a house full of music”.
Her father, Chuck Collins, was a singer, composer and broadcaster during the golden age of radio in the Forties and early Fifties and would often bring stars of the day, such as Bob Hope and George Shearing, home for supper. Judy’s initial exposure to music, however, was in the classical arena, studying piano with the conductor Antonia Breco. |
Judy Collins |
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“The piano playing brought a lot of discipline into my life,” Judy recalled during a recent visit to London. “I needed it then, and, boy, do I need it now!”
It was the singer Jo Stafford, famous for interpreting Rodgers and Hart numbers, who introduced Judy to folk music.
“She made an album of folk songs with her husband, Paul Weston, in the early Fifties, which had things like ‘Shenandoah’ and ‘Barbara Allen’ on it. That really drew me into folk music, it was so different to everything else around at the time. That led me, later on, to the music of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger.”
Being slightly older than the Woodstock generation - Judy has just turned 65 - she found herself acting as mentor to the songwriters who emerged in the mid to late Sixties. On her albums she gave early exposure to songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman, and encouraged Leonard Cohen to take the step from reclusive, published poet to distinguished songwriter and performer.
“I recorded Leonard’s first two songs and encouraged him to perform for the first time, at a fund-raiser in New York. He went out and sang ‘Suzanne’, stopped in the middle, petrified, walked off stage and said, ‘I can’t do this’. So I went out and sang it with him and, of course, he eventually turned into a fine performer.”
Judy also supported the English songwriter, Sandy Denny, giving exposure to her song ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’. “I loved Fairport Convention and I was very moved by that song and recorded it. I didn’t know Sandy when I did the song but she later visited me in New York and brought me a little vase made of glass, with little glass flowers. I still have it in my studio and I think of her every time I see it. She was a marvellous, warm, person.
“I’ve always wanted to do Sandy’s song ‘Solo’ but never quite worked out how to do it. Sometimes a song slips through your fingers because you can’t work out how to tackle it, but I may do it on my next CD.”
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The Essential Judy Collins, the must haveCD for your music collection. |
A live version of ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ appears on a double CD compilation, ‘The Essential Judy Collins’, which features versions of many of her biggest hits. The album has been released on Judy’s own label, Delta Deluxe, something that has, she says, given her greater freedom. “It’s great because I can make my own distribution deals, and not be beholden to anyone else. It’s nice not having to go to companies who give you a little money, you make a CD for them, then they bury it for you.” |
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