What will you be doing when you turn 85? Living in a retirement community? Laying on the beach in Florida? Living in the spare room in your kid’s house?
Not so for Judy Collins, the American singer/songwriter who is still going strong as she celebrates her 85th birthday.
The festivities took place at NYC’s Town Hall on March 8. The first thing you notice as you look around is the makeup of the audience. As you’d expect, most were older and had been following Collins for years.
Collins walked out onto the stage in a beautiful purple pantsuit. She played a 12-string guitar and was accompanied by a four-piece band.
She commanded the stage, and you could clearly see the comfort borne by 65 years of performing. Collins performed the first half-hour set of her music with her backup band. Her patter was delightful, and she had charm in abundance.
Her lower range was fine and steady, but her trademark crystalline tones cracked sometimes when she attempted to make higher notes. But it didn’t matter. She opened with three songs, the last of which was “Both Sides Now’ the Joni Mitchel song Judy covered so successfully. For many, it brought back memories of college and the folk music of the era.
She then introduced our host for the evening, Sophie B. Hawkins. She acted as our MC and introduced Collins’ guests, each of whom sang one song, some of which were written by Collins and/or performed by her.
Some songs were lesser known, while others took on a whole new interpretation, like “Mr. Tambourine Man” performed by Rickie Lee Jones.
Guest composer Steven Schwartz sat at the piano and joined Collins in singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” One of the most moving segment pieces was a song written by Collins in 2018 after Trump’s first election called “Dreamers” about the plights of the Dreamers.
The acapella rendition by Martha Redbone was emotional and moving. “We came here for democracy and hope/ Now all we have is hope.”
Throughout her illustrative career, Collins interacted with some of the most notable figures in folk rock, from Bob Dylan when he was still Robert Zimmerman to Leonard Cohen, who she encouraged to sing and record his own songs after she heard “Suzanne” and to Joni Mitchell many of whose songs she recorded.
Collins is comfortable onstage, telling anecdotes and sharing stories, some personal, some not. She tells a couple of Mae West stories that she heard from her father. They weren’t relevant but funny, nevertheless.
Although occasionally forgetting a word or date, Collins took mishaps in stride, asking for help from the band and moving on. The audience was totally on her side, so when she lost her place, no one cared. She talked of her former alcoholism and even got a laugh or two out of it.
Collins brought the house down when she sang “Send In the Clowns,” her biggest hit. One of the highlights was towards the end when Stephen Stills came on and joined her in singing “Helplessly Hoping.”
The two share romantic and musical history, and the audience loved hearing his tribute to her, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” as the finale.
For a few hours, time stopped as music and memories went on
