Over six decades later, we’re all still Spellbound watching her perform--
One of the great folk icons- a singer-songwriter, author, activist, and poet known best during the 1960’s & 70’s, Judy Collins returned to Kansas City, over the weekend. She’s still as active as ever at 85-years-young and enchanted the audience at the Kauffman Center for the Arts, while winter decided it wasn’t quite done outside- bringing cold, winds, and even some light snow.
The evening began with a well-received half hour set from Norwegian sister folk duo, Oakland Rain (aka twins Maren and Charlotte Wallevik Hansen), in support of their “Twin Flames Part One: The Evergreen” release, the first of two planned companion records, this initial one released in late January.
Like similar Scandinavian female traditional folk duos (First Aid Kit, Huldreokkk, Staallul), their shared harmonies are impeccable, mastery of English is probably better than our own, and their very kind in-between song banter, was spoken with a cheerful and spry impish lilt.
The band nicely introduced each song and gave some very brief background to it, with the recent “Sister Hymn” having the shortest intro, as its title and content seemed obvious. The sisters are staunch advocates of mental health and hope for positive change through their music and made sure to make mention of that (as well as their CDs for sale at merch, as reminded by their tour manager to say).
There seems to be another modern folk renaissance in music of late – from chart-topping bands like Mumford and Sons, Fleet Foxes, Noah Kahan, and Lumineers, to the acclaimed recent Bob Dylan biopic, to everyone’s favorite, Taylor Swift, even releasing a pair of award-winning folk-inspired records, produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff.
So, it’s a real treat when one of the 1960’s originators like Judy Collins comes to town, with a seemingly endless supply of stories and accompanying songs. Her ninety-minute performance was not as much as of a concert, as a musical conversation – peppered with anecdotes, one-liner jokes, and stories of her own journey, which started by learning piano at a very young age, as encouraged by her piano-playing and radio host father.
Collins began her ninety-minute headlining set (accompanied by her pianist and own twelve-string guitar) with her famous cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now”, declaring afterword with some pep in her step, that “’85’ is the new ‘27’!”, which got an early collective laugh from the enraptured crowd.
She mentioned the recent pandemic beginning as a good thing for her, not having had any kind of ‘real vacation’ in some forty years but was brought back to reality by catching the virulent bug.
The early sing a-long of the classic “Danny Boy’ was not only an early chance to get the crowd’s St. Pat’s pipes rehearsing, but dated back to her own childhood, being brought up on stage by her father to sing classics like that one, and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” ...in April. A few Mae West quotes she learned along the way, kept things light as well.
Collins mentioned her longtime friendship with Joan Baez before her own version of the Baez hit, “Diamonds & Rust”, saying, “we’ve known each other so long, we play at each other birthdays” and noting she really never did many drugs back in the day, saying “they interfered with my drinking” to a crowd’s laugh.
She did admit to heeding a learned lesson to keep working as one ages and admitted these shows back on the road also served as her own therapy; having still to adequately overcome the death of her husband and partner since 1978, designer/artist Louis Nelson, who passed away in December.
Collins admitted her intensive music lessons ‘ruined’ her social life as a young girl (“...but I made up for it in the 60’s,” she exclaimed) and that the irresistible pull of acts like Jo Stafford, drew her away from classical piano, and towards folk and pop on guitar.
And like many musicians in the right-place at the right-time, she first met John Denver as an early teen, had 13-year Arlo Guthrie opening for her when she moved to NYC in 1961, and stayed in a farmhouse in Woodstock, NY as Bob Dylan finished writing “Mr. Tambourine Man’ from a room just down the hall.
Denver’s own “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” were mashed together as a medley (with the crowd singing the choruses back) and Collins recalled running a Rocky Mountain lodge in Estes Park with her first husband, without electricity or modern conveniences (but loving it).
On her version of the traditional, “John Riley”, she proved she could more than hold an extended end note (to rave applause), mentioning her approval of the recent Dylan film and long friendship with Pete Seeger (though was somewhat comically disgruntled that the Woodstock Festival had three chances to invite her, but never did).
She would switch over to piano after the first hour, recollecting her 1966 meeting with a young Leonard Cohen and he recited verses of his own “Suzanne”, unsure that it was even a song (“It was!” Collins would assure him).
1967’s “Since You Asked” was her own song and had her mention her poetry writings as well; saying a poem can sometimes be “jammed” into being a song lyric, but the opposite generally did not work. Her most recent book of poetry, “Sometimes It’s Heaven” is out next week and she was thrilled to have her publisher’s representatives (from KC’s own Andrews McMeel) in the audience as well.
Her distinctive Sondheim cover and perhaps biggest hit, “Send in the Clowns” would end the main set, but the pair quickly re-emerged for a one-song acapella encore of “Amazing Grace”, which found Collins teaching the audiences the deeper verses, beyond the familiar chorus.
After what seemed a quick ninety-minutes, the show was over to bows and applause, feeling like it could have easily gone at least another ninety, with more stories, anecdotes and reflections, from a life well-lived. And there was no real time to touch on her activist roles and stance on social issues. Her most recent album, 2022’s Spellbound, was her first of all-original material, resulting in a Grammy Award nomination for Best Folk Album- further proof that even in her mid-80s, Judy Collins still has a lot left to say.
Recent Comments