There is much to say about legendary singer Judy Collins.
On Friday night she gave a spectacular and emotional concert in Fairfield, Connecticut, singing her first hit, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” her signature version of Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire,” and her own magnificent “When I Was a Girl in Colorado.”
At 85, Collins has lost not a bit of her extraordinary voice and wit. (Her show is full of bawdy jokes and reminisces of her long, triumphant career.) She ably plays guitar and piano, things you don’t associate with her because she’s such a famous singer. When she concludes the show with “Amazing Grace,” her soaring passionate delivery sends a chill up your spine. The sold out audience — typical of her shows — was on its feet.
But then Collins startled her fans with two sad announcements. Her beloved brother had passed away that morning. And on December 4th, her husband, Louis Nelson, died after being diagnosed with cancer just three weeks earlier. I was lucky to know Louis, who was an incredibly accomplished designer and artist. He created the Korean War Memorial on the mall in Washington, DC.
Judy is one of our greatest living artists. It’s well past time she had a Kennedy Center honor. She has plenty of awards but here’s big news: on March 8th, 2025 Collins will be tributed in a mega show at New York’s Town Hall called “Judy Collins and Friends: 85 Years of Music and Protest.”
Directed by Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Russ Titelman, Collins will be joined onstage by her peers and some of the young talents she inspired and helped nurture. I expect some of her peers and friends to join her, like Stephen Stills, who wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” for her back in 1969.
Collins first performed at The Town Hall in 1964 in a program that resulted in her first live recording Judy Collins in Concert (1964). Over the past six decades, Judy has performed at The Town Hall several times, both in her own concerts and at activist events including the civil rights and anti-war programs to which she has dedicated much of her life.
She’s on tour now, fulfilling obligations despite these recent tragedies. It’s a form of grief therapy.
For information on the Town Hall show, click here and do quickly because it will sell out immediately.
