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Judy Collins (Photo by Patrick Donovan)

When iconic folksinger Judy Collins performs this weekend, I wonder how many in the audience will be transported back to the 1960s when she made a splash in the music world. 

A contemporary of many notables who entered the American consciousness at that time, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to name just two, Collins has continued to evolve and perform to packed houses as she has entered into the eighth decade of her life.

For me, the one that takes me back in time is her 1967 album Wildflowers, which includes her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” that garnered her worldwide recognition and her first Grammy Award in the Best Folk Performance category. And while Collins is still generally categorized as a folk singer, one of the biggest successes of her career was her recording of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from the 1973 Broadway musical A Little Night Music. She received a Grammy (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female) for this one, too.

Collins was born in Seattle into a musical family. Her father (who was blind) was a successful radio personality and singer with shows in Seattle and Los Angeles. By age four, Collins began taking piano lessons and, through diligent practice and the tutelage of Dr. Antonia Brico, developed into a promising concert pianist. 

Yet, when, at age 15, she heard Alan Ladd sing the ballad, “The Gypsy Rover” on the radio, the folk music seed was planted in her soul. This led to the acquisition of a guitar she taught herself to play.

Soon after, a man known as “Lingo the Drifter” happened into her life when he came to her home to pay his respects to her father, by then an announcer for a Denver radio station. He also had a Denver radio program on which he spun the tunes of Woodie Guthrie and the Almanac Singers (of which Pete Seegar was a member). Lingo became a family friend, playing a seminal role in propelling her passion for folk music by turning her onto the songs of the new folk revival.

During her tumultuous life, that included polio, depression, an attempted suicide as a young teen, divorce, romantic breakups, alcoholism, loss of her only son Clark to drugs and suicide, she not only has stayed the course with music, including composing songs, but has authored several books, made a documentary film about her early teacher Antonia Brico (who broke the proverbial glass ceiling by becoming an orchestral conductor) and began podcasting.

Collins is idealized for her clear, bell-like vocal qualities and emotive expression, especially of heartrending ballads. With 40 albums to her credit, she is often associated with so-called rival Joan Baez. Her 21^st, released in 1998, was Judy Collins Sings Dylan…Just Like a Woman which has 11 covers that include several Dylan standards and a couple of his lesser-known ballads (“Dark Eyes,” “I Believe in You,” “Bob Dylan’s Dream”).

I had a short conversation with Collins back in April, receiving detailed responses to a couple questions and observations I put to her.

jb: Before we begin, I want to offer my condolences on the recent death of your husband, as well as the loss of your son. 

JC: Thank you.

jb: Do you still consider yourself a folk singer? I’ve been listening to my older albums of yours as well as your more recent work and it just seems that you have become more and more eclectic and inclusive of various genres.

JC: I’ve done many different kinds of things. I’m very grateful to have a repertoire that includes many types of songs, including folk songs. So, I’m very lucky.

jb: I hadn’t realized you did an album covering Dylan’s songs.

JC: Yes, I did. I wouldn’t have missed it.

jb: That leads me to ask, have you ever been to Duluth?

JC: Oh yes, I’ve worked there, yes, I’m sure I have, if I haven’t, then I’m sorry I’ve missed it. But I think I have.

jb: Well, I have a partner who’s a real Dylan fanatic and he told me to ask you if you’d like to see Dylan’s first home.

JC: (laughs) Well, it might be a good thing to be able to do…

jb: So, I have a few things to ask about singing. One is, you’ve been seen in the past as a competitor with Joan Baez and yet I know, from your book, that isn’t the case, but I’ve been listening to both your albums side-by-side and one thing I noticed is that, unlike Joan, you don’t sing with a vibrato.

JC: Yes, that’s true.

jb: Is vibrato something you can control?

JC: Yes, I was lucky…in 1965 I was losing my voice and I was very upset. I asked friends in music here in New York [City] who should I go to about this? It was Harry Belafonte who told me his pianist would know, to ask him and I did. The name he gave me was Max Margulis and he gave me his phone number. 

And then I asked my friend, Chuck Israels, whose parents ran a music and arts camp in Lenox, Mass., called Indian Hill. And everybody, whether they were a dancer, a violist, a singer, a drummer or whatever they were, they went to Indian Hill in the summer and learned what they had to learn. And Irma Bauman and her husband...they gave me the same name that Harry Belafonte’s pianist gave me! It was another reference to Max Margolis. 

This was at the beginning of the summer of 1965, and I went off to do concerts and when I came back at the end of the summer, I was horse again. So I called the number I had [for Margulis]. I was living on the Upper West Side [of Manhattan] and so I called him and told him these people have recommended you to me. He said ‘that’s very flattering’ and he asked ‘what kind of music do you do?’ When I said I was a folk singer he said he wasn’t interested and when I asked why, he said ‘you people are not serious.’ I said to him, believe me I am serious! So he said, “well why don’t you come by and we’ll take a look.’ I hadn’t known where he lived, but I walked out the door of my 8^th floor apartment, walked past the elevator and I rang his bell! [They were next door neighbors!]

When I met him, I found a teacher who knew everything about the voice and I studied with him for 32 years until he died. On his death bed he said to me ‘Don’t worry about anything just think about clarity and phrasing.’ What he taught was ‘bel canto’—that is the form of study of all these big, gorgeous tenors from Italy – that’s what Pavarotti was studying, bel canto. So that’s what I have been studying for 32 years and that’s the reason I still sing with clarity in lyrics.  If you can’t understand the lyrics someone is not singing well or if they have a lot of [she vocalized an example of vibrato] they are in the wrong singing department. 

I had a great disappointment the other day because I was watching television when I ran across a concert by that young Italian singer who is blind [Andrea Bocelli]. When he started out years ago, he had a very pure, wonderful tone but in this recorded concert what all I heard was [she again demonstrated vibrato]. I was shocked.

jb: I’m very interested to hear this. My reviewing of live local music has only been these past few years but for myself, I am annoyed when it’s vibrato all the time, I just really don’t like vocals with heavy vibrato.

JC: Of course you don’t, it’s not true singing, it’s a mess. It is curable and controllable. It’s just that’s most of the big singing schools don’t know a thing about bel canto; they don’t understand what this is about. I was lucky and I can’t delve into it very often, but my proof is in my career and my singing voice. That’s all I can do.

jb: Well you have a wonderful singing voice and I’ve been enjoying listening to it again on my records. And then I’ve been looking at all the albums you’ve put out – 40!  Is the latest one Spellbound? 

JC: Yes, that came out a couple years ago. It’s the first time I’ve written all the songs myself.

jb: So will you be singing most of the songs from Spellbound then? 

JC: Well, I certainly will be singing some of them.

jb: What I have been wondering is how you put together a concert playlist with this many record albums. I’m sure folks have their favorites from each one. How do you decide which songs to include?

JC: I pick the ones I want to do; I bounce around so I cover some of the 65 years I’ve been doing this singing. I hope I make people happy. I know people want to hear “Send in the Clowns,” “Both Sides Now” and “Amazing Grace,” so I try to filter those in. And I’ll do “When I Was a Girl in Colorado” [from Spellbound].

jb: AND “Since You’ve Asked”!

JC: Yes.

jb: Wonderful – I hope you’ll be in a good place when you are here and that it’ll go swimmingly.

JC: It’ll be a great privilege to be in Duluth.

jb: So will you be solo with guitar?

JC: I always have wonderful musicians with me – sometimes just a pianist, sometimes a violinist. And me playing the guitar and singing.

jb: What are their names?

JC: I don’t know. You’ll just have to wait and see.

jb: Whoever is available?

JC: That’s right!

jb: I know you are a classically trained pianist, on your albums are you playing the piano?

JC:  Yes, and I will be playing a piano when I come to Duluth – I always take time out to play a song or two on the piano.

jb:  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grand piano on the West stage. Will West owner Bob Boone have a real piano for you?

JC: Oh yes!  

jb: Well, I wish you the best and looking forward to seeing you perform!

 JC: Thank you, my dear.