Judy Collins
Queen’s Hall - 06/10/23
Legends may be timeless but they are not ageless. Judy Collins looked somewhat frail as she was helped on to the stage at the Queen’s Hall before strapping on a 12-string guitar that looked almost as big as herself. That impression of frailty, however, was belied by her lively introduction, referring to what is known ironically as ‘The Great Folk Scare’, the early 60s upsurge in folk music which produced so many names who have become part of the popular music pantheon in the US. A quick chorus of ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’, one of the anthems of that time, established that her voice was in good shape. A reading of John Lennon’s ‘Norwegian Wood’ confirmed that any apprehensions one might have had about the octogenarian’s vocal powers were unfounded. As if to prove it, in the course of one of her entertaining between-songs chats she essayed a verse of ‘Danny Boy’ and reached the famous top note with no difficulty.
Her own songs from her latest, Grammy-nominated album, ‘Spellbound’ were scattered through a programme that drew heavily on the work of her contemporaries, work that is surely among the greatest of the periodic flowerings of talent that characterise American music. Joan Baez’s ‘Diamonds and Rust’ was given a dramatic reading, and numbers by Stephen Stills (who wrote ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ for her, as she reminded us), Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen, all of whom she knew, hung out and worked with, reminded us that she was not just covering their songs, but acknowledging them as equals.
Subtly supported by pianist Stu Lindemann and Thad de Brock on electric guitar and pedal steel, she demonstrated that her voice still had range and power. Equally her interpretive skills are undiminished as she showed in response to a request from the audience which resulted in a spellbinding ‘Send in the Clowns’. Sure, there were occasional lapses as she grappled with the tuning of a sometimes recalcitrant 12-string (‘So many strings, so little time’) or misplaced a name in an anecdote, but here was a singer with decades of experience behind her and nothing to prove.