Judy Collins

Born in Seattle and trained in Denver, Judy Collins established herself in the early 1960s in the American folk revival, after an initial training as a classical pianist. Based in the Greenwich Village club circuit, she first recorded traditional songs before quickly broadening her repertoire toward an orchestral folk, chamber-pop, country and standards. Collins distinguished herself for her interpretive work, with readings of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jacques Brel, or Stephen Sondheim, while gradually introducing her own compositions. Albums such as A Maid of Constant Sorrow (1961), In My Life (1966), Wildflowers (1967), Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1968), Whales & Nightingales (1970) and Judith (1975) mark this evolution, balancing acoustic arrangements, strings, Broadway influences and more personal writing. Her versions of Both Sides, Now, followed by Amazing Grace and Send in the Clowns, rank among the recordings most associated with her career. Over the decades, Judy Collins has maintained regular activity on stage and in the studio, with projects in duo or collaboration, notably with Ari Hest on Silver Skies Blue (2016), Stephen Stills on Everybody Knows (2017), then Jonas Fjeld and Chatham County Line on Winter Stories (2019). In 2022, Spellbound marked a turning point as her first album entirely composed of original songs.