IN CONCERT
What: Judy Collins
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: McPherson Playhouse
Tickets: $47.50-$75 in person at the McPherson Theatre box office, by phone at 250-386-6121 or online at rmts.bc.ca
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Judy Collins has provided a creative spark in the careers of several peers 鈥� she effectively pushed Leonard Cohen into performing in 1966, and was the inspiration behind Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, the 1969 song by Crosby, Stills and Nash 鈥� but the folk icon has forged her own path over her 58 years in the music business.
Though classically trained, she came to widespread recognition at the age of 22 in Greenwich Village, New York City, where she was joined by peers such as Bob Dylan in the burgeoning folk music movement. The Seattle native would eventually move away from coffeehouse folk and into more lush arrangements, which sent her 1967 album Wildflowers to No. 5 on the Billboard pop charts. She never lost her penchant for hard work, however. New York-based Collins, now 79, has averaged 120 shows for each of the past several years.
The tour that brings Collins to Victoria on March 30 is part of a string of dates that will keep her on the road consistently through July. 鈥淚 love it,鈥� Collins told WTTW, a PBS affiliate in Chicago, during an interview last year. 鈥淚鈥檓 driven. I鈥檓 always thinking the next right thing is going to be the next best thing.鈥�
She had the golden touch for more than a decade, beginning with her cover of Joni Mitchell鈥檚 Both Sides, Now, which became the earliest hit version of the song. Collins鈥檚 version, which scored her a Grammy Award in 1969, now resides in the Grammy Hall of Fame (ironically, Mitchell鈥檚 version does not). Collins would go on to have other significant successes. Her version of Amazing Grace is in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 鈥� alongside the Academy Award-nominated documentary she co-directed Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman 鈥� but Both Sides, Now is the song that many longtime fans remember most fondly.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all about gut instinct, which comes with training, time, experience and knowing what you love to sing and what you hate,鈥� Collins said in 2017 during an interview on the Grammys website.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lifetime education. And the song doesn鈥檛 necessarily depend on the writer. It takes on a life of its own. The song knows where it鈥檚 meant to go and it knows what to do when it gets there.鈥�
Send in the Clowns, a Stephen Sondheim ballad written for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, put Collins back on top in 1976, earning her a Grammy for song of the year. She would not win another Grammy for 41 years, until Silver Skies Blue, her collaboration with singer-songwriter Ari Hest, took home best folk album in 2017. Surprisingly, it was Collins鈥� first record written and performed entirely with a collaborator.
That same year, she wrote a powerful first-person account, Cravings: How I Conquered Food, about her battle with compulsive overeating, one of seven books she has authored to date. 鈥淚 think it was fundamentally in my DNA,鈥� Collins said of her eating and alcohol issues in an interview with USA Today, shortly after the book was released.
鈥淭hey say these things are inherited. There are chemical imbalances that we get 鈥� the colour of our eyes, how tall we鈥檙e going to be. And I think the same thing is true for alcoholism and addiction.鈥�
Above and beyond her innate ability at serving a song 鈥� few artists during the 1960s and 鈥�70s were better at interpreting material than Collins 鈥� she has a deep passion for social activism.
Collins has been a UNICEF ambassador since 1994, when she wrote a song about children of war for the charity. It was a role Collins had long been comfortable inhabiting, from Vietnam War protests (she was arrested and jailed in 1972 following one demonstration) to meetings in France during the Paris Peace Accords one year later.
She is less combative today, but no less persistent in her beliefs. During an interview with NPR, she spoke of her continued political activism, no matter who is responsible.
鈥淚 believe in picking up your sticks and going on to the next fight. I also know the fight is never over.鈥�
The key, she said, is 鈥渟peaking up when you are confronted, speaking out about what鈥檚 going on that you know is wrong, continuing to fight fascism and racism and elitism as long as you live.鈥�
