The folk legend with a new book of poetry and another Grammy-nominated album returns this week to play St. Cecilia Music Center, one of her favorite concert halls. The Local Spins interview.
Still Touring and Loving Her Audiences: Judy Collins (Courtesy Photo)
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Folk legend Judy Collins hasn’t seen the much-buzzed-about Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” depicting the influential songwriter and performer’s rise to fame amid New York’s early 1960s music scene.
But as she points out, she doesn’t really need to.
“I lived it,” the 85-year-old singer says of her experiences in Greenwich Village, where she sang many of the protest songs created by the likes of Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and others.
Indeed, Collins first met a young and inexperienced Dylan in Colorado back in 1959.
“Robert Zimmerman was his name. He was a funny guy,” Collins recalled in a recent phone interview with Local Spins. “He was badly dressed and … he would hang out in the bar.”
Of course, Collins also later recognized Dylan’s enormous talent and was one of the first artists to perform and record her own renditions of Dylan’s music, with “Farewell” and “Masters of War” appearing on her 1963 studio album.
She even remembers attending a party and listening through “a closed blue door” as Dylan composed the classic, “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
Collins later recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Dylan’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” for her “Fifth Album” that was released in 1965.
A Legacy of Music and Poetry: Collins (Photo/Shervin Lainez)
The Seattle native who moved to New York in the early 1960s has carved out her own Grammy Award-winning legacy – a career marked by social activism and artistry that’s produced more than three dozen albums over the past half-century.
Collins seemingly hasn’t slowed down: In 2022, she released “Spellbound,” her first album containing completely original songs that was nominated for another Grammy.
Later this month, she’ll come out with a book of poetry, “Sometimes It’s Heaven,” that features 107 of 350 poems that she penned several years ago at the urging of her husband, industrial designer Louis Nelson, who passed away from undiagnosed cancer in December.
“It was terrible,” Collins said of losing Nelson. “Everything that I’ve done contributes to where I am and meeting up with Louis Nelson in 1978 and spending 46 years with him is at the top of the list. He was not only a fan, but helped me with so many things.”
Collins’ March tour stops at Grand Rapids’ St. Cecilia Music Center on Thursday (March 13). Tickets — $39-$69 — for the 7:30 p.m. concert with special guest Oakland Rain are available online here.
“I love your auditorium. It’s so sympatico,” said Collins, who’s played St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium several times over the years. “Over the years, you come to favor certain halls. It’s spectacular. It suits my mood.
“I do rather savor the essence of singers and performers who have preceded me. They give St. Cecilia a certain resonance that many places don’t have.”
A set list from a recent performance on tour demonstrates the broad range of music that Collins embraces: The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Stephen Sondheim’s “I Remember the Sky,” Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and her own, “When I Was a Girl in Colorado,” that appears on her “Spellbound” album.
After more than six decades of performing, Collins still relishes the opportunity to take the stage to sing these songs, something she’ll be doing regularly as she tours North America in 2025.
“I’m lucky because I have these incredible audiences all over the world,” she noted. “I’m so lucky that I have fresh new songs and new audiences. I’ll keep it going as long as I can. Why would I stop?”
VIDEO: Judy Collins (Live in 2022)
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