Judy Collins stood on stage, dressed in white, radiating an angelic aura. She seemed to rise from the past, a spirit of the ‘60s caught in the present, coming to terms with where the time goes.
All these years later at 78, she’s still Judy Blue Eyes, with that soothing, sweet soprano voice that echoes across the decades and resonates with old and new generations.
When Collins sang “Both Sides Now” Friday at The Sharon, it was like a gentle, winsome, bittersweet journey into a youthful heart come of age. Just the way Joni Mitchell wrote it so long ago.
Collins, wearing a chalk-white, sequined blouse and white pants, played an acoustic guitar and was accompanied by a pianist. She generated deep, emotional impact for such songs as “Suzanne,” and “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.”
It was the music of Collins’ time — and it now has become timeless.
“Of course Judy Collins and her music is still relevant – her songs still mean a lot,” said Villager Joel Newman, like his wife, Shelly, a ‘60s’ survivor. Both attended the nearly sold out show. “This music is beyond a time period,” he added.
“It’s for people who believe in something better,” Shelly Newman added. “It’s for people still fighting the good fight – it gives voice to the voiceless.”
And it’s the voice that still makes Judy Collins so extraordinary. There were some concessions to age, but very few.
“I love her voice; it’s still strong and beautiful,” said Teri Weed, who sings with The Villages Voices. “I remember seeing Judy back in the early ‘70s. I never forgot it, and it’s great to hear her now. She has stamina to do a concert and she’s got a great sense of humor.”
Collins was in a frisky and funny mood. She was supposed to play The Sharon on Thursday but got trapped in a Nor’easter that whacked New York City and the East Coast.
“I had a snow day off,” Collins said from the stage.
Collins loves to talk and, at times, it seemed like she was doing stand-up comedy.
“Here I am, the winner of ‘American Idol’ in 1957,” she said early in the show. She sang “Song for Judith,” a number she once performed on “Sesame Street.”
A while back, Collins said he hurt her elbow and had to go to the hospital. A young nurse spotted her and said: “I remember you from ‘The Muppets Show’”
Collins told stories of Joan Rivers, Mae West and her old boyfriend, Stephen Stills, who wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” for Crosby, Stills and Nash.
“Stephen and I went on tour last year,” she said, adding that 50 years after their romance, it was like “couples therapy.”
Collins admitted she has been singing a long time, adding that, “singing is, after all, the second oldest profession.”
Then came personal tales of her “dysfunctional family” adding that, “any family with more than one member is dysfunctional.”
Collins said she suffers from “Irish Alzheimer’s – that’s when you forget everything except the grudges.”
She also talked about her battles with alcohol. “I’ve been sober now for 40 years,” Collins said, explaining she drank because of a sense of loss.
Early on, she was a piano prodigy, playing with symphony orchestras at 13, and practicing day and night. “I had no social life, but I made up for it during the ‘60s.”
Ah the ‘60s, that golden decade when artists like Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen made music an instrument of change.
“I was so lucky to be part of that folk movement,” she said. Then she sang Joan Baez’s “Diamond and Rust.” The number details Baez’s frayed relationship with Dylan, but Collins made the song her own.
Collins told how Leonard Cohen came to her apartment, told her he wasn’t a singer or musician. Then he gave her his song, “Suzanne.”
“I wanted to record it the next day,” Collins said. She performed the number with a kind of spiritual grace.
Collins cannot be categorized as a folksinger. She has the range and talent to sing just about any musical style, and did just that paying tribute to Stephen Sondheim.
She was introspective on “Anyone Can Whistle” but showed survivor’s grit on “I’m Still Here.”
She stood center stage and created an elegiac mood with a somberly glorious vocal on “Send In the Clowns.”
