Judy Collins - Biography
By J Poet
Judy Collins is undoubtedly the best interpretative singer to come out of the 60s folk revival. In her long and multifaceted career she’s made 44 original albums that have gone gold and platinum, had Top 10 singles, won two Grammys, been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, written novels and memoirs, started her own record label, directed an Academy Award nominated film about her piano teacher and America’s first woman symphony orchestra conductor Antonia Brico and been a tireless crusader for human dignity and civil rights. She was one of the first folk singers to branch out into pop, rock, Broadway show tunes and serious theater music and in recent years has become a well known lecturer on the subjects of grief, healing and spirituality. In a 2007 TV interview with Bill Moyers on PBS, the 67-year-old singer said she had no intention of slowing down. “I plan to be performing as long as the possibility is there,” she told Moyers.
Judy Collins was born in Seattle, WA and introduced to music by her father, who was a radio station DJ. He was also a professional singer, and blind. Collins has early memories of going to gigs with her dad in the big car her mother drove. He’d frequently call her up onto the stage to harmonize with him. Like many people, Collins sang in her church choir. He also had a grandmother who taught her old hymns and folksongs. Collins studied classical piano with Antonia Brico and seemed to have a promising career as a classical pianist ahead of her. She had her concert debut at 13, performing Mozart’s “Concerto for Two Pianos.”
She was also playing guitar inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She married and moved back east with her husband, a teacher at the University of Connecticut. She became a regular live performer on the campus radio station WHUS, which gave her the courage to move to New York City and try her luck at open mics and street singing. Jac Holzman, the head of the folk powerhouse Elektra records heard her at the Village Gate and signed her on the spot. Her first album A Maid of Constant Sorrow (1961 Elektra, 2006 Wildflower) was recorded in five hours. Maid was a hit on folk radio and Collins followed it up with the folky Golden Apples of the Sun (1962 Elektra, 2006 Wildflower), but on her next three albums – Judy Collins #3 (1963 Elektra, 2006 Wildflower), The Judy Collins Concert (1964 Elektra, 2006 Wildflower) and Fifth Album (1965 Elektra) -she started branching out to include tunes by Dylan, Ochs, Lightfoot and other singer/songwriters. Collins moved into the pop mainstream with In My Life (1966 Elektra)
and Wildflowers (1967 Elektra). Her quiet renditions of popular rock tunes and darker theatrical pieces made he a singer to be reckoned with. In My Life made it to 49 on Billboard’s album charts, but Wildflowers quickly made it to #5 on the album charts behind the hit single of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and stayed there for a year. It was her first gold album. “Both Sides Now” later won a Grammy for Best Folk Performance. The album also marked Collins’ debut as a songwriter with the poignant love song “Since You've Asked.” The title track of Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1968 Elektra), a Sandy Denny tune, was a worldwide hit, and went Gold in less than a year. The album included another great Collins original, “My Father.” In My Life went gold just as Whales & Nightingales (1970 Elektra) was released: “Amazing Grace” became a Top 20 hit and the album went gold. Living (1971 Elektra), one of her strongest sets ever, included the chilling “Vietnam Love Song” which may have alienated mainstream listeners, as well as “Song for Judith” a classic heart wrenching original. She followed it with an even more political album, True Stories and Other Dreams (1973 Elektra). It sold slowly, but went gold within a year.
Collins finished her Elektra years with Judith (1975 Elektra), Bread and Roses (1976 Elektra), Hard Times For Lovers (1979 Elektra), Running for My Life (1980 Elektra), The Times of Our Lives (1982 Elektra), and Home Again (1984 Elektra). All are respectable efforts, but each one charted lower than the last until Home Again, which didn’t chart at all.
In 1992, Clark, her only child, committed suicide at the age of 33 after years of battling alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression. Collins's music and her spirituality, she says, have been central to her journey of recovery. "Wings of Angels," which she wrote not long after Clark died. In 1993 she recorded an album of Bob Dylan covers Judy Sings Dylan....Just Like A Woman. She continued to record at a steady pace well into the 90s and the 21st century- Come Rejoice! A Judy Collins Christmas (1994), Shameless (1994), Voices (1995), Christmas At The Biltmore Estate (1997), All On A Wintry Night (2000), Judy Collins Live At Wolf Trap (2000), Judy Collins sings Leonard Cohen; Democracy (2004), Portrait Of An American Girl (2005), Judy Collins Sings Lennon & McCartney (2007), Paradise (2010), and Bohemian (2011). She currently resides in New York City.