Judy Collins
BORN: May 1, 1939, Seattle, WA
Judy Collins was one of the major interpretive folksingers of the '60s.
A child prodigy at classical piano, she turned to folk music at the age of
15 and released her first album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, in 1961 when she
was 22. That album and its follow-up, The Golden Apples of the Sun, consisted
of traditional folk material, with Collins's pure, sweet soprano accompanied
by her acoustic guitar playing. By the time of Judy Collins #3, she had begun
to turn to contemporary material and to add other musicians. (Jim, later Roger,
McGuinn tried out his first arrangements of "The Bells of Rhymney" and "Turn,
Turn, Turn" on this album, before using them with The Byrds.)
Collins's musical horizons were expanded further by 1966 and the release
of In My Life, which added theater music to her repertoire and introduced
her audience to the writing of Leonard Cohen; it was one of her six albums
to go gold. Her first gold-seller, however, was 1967's Wildflowers, which
contained her hit version of "Both Sides Now" by the then-little-known songwriter
Joni Mitchell.
By the '70s, Collins had come to be identified as much as an art song singer
as a folksinger and had also begun to make a mark with her original compositions.
Her best-known performances cover a wide stylistic range: the traditional
gospel song "Amazing Grace," the Stephen Sondheim Broadway ballad "Send in
the Clowns," and such songs of her own as "My Father" and "Born to the Breed."
Collins recorded less frequently after the end of her 23-year association
with Elektra Records in 1984, though she made two albums for Gold Castle.
In 1990, she signed to Columbia Records and released Fires of Eden, her 23rd
album. A move to Geffen preceded the 1993 release of Judy Sings Dylan...Just
Like a Woman; Shameless followed on Atlantic in 1994. Six years later, Collins
released All on a Wintry Night. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide