After more than five decades of making music her own way and sharing ideas on social activism, Judy Collins continues to inspire.
This Grammy-nominated icon of North American folk music, still going strong and busily touring at 79, has been characterized as a “modern Renaissance woman.” Not only is she still playing to audiences around the continent and beyond, she is an accomplished painter, musical mentor to others and an in-demand keynote speaker for mental health and suicide prevention. The author of seven books, she has written about everything from her career to her personal struggles with bulimia and the death by suicide of her only child in 1992.
The Victoria Folk Music Society is bringing this legendary individual to town for a March 30 show at the McPherson Playhouse, which doubles as a fundraiser event for the Society.
A child prodigy who once envisioned a career as a concert pianist, Collins caught the bug of folk music in the 1950s listening to the heartfelt storytelling of such artists as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She recorded her first album, Maid of Constant Sorrow, in 1961 with Elektra Records.
Since then she has recorded 50 albums, chalking up hits with such songs as “Suzanne,” “Both Sides Now,” “Amazing Grace” and “Send in the Clowns.” While Collins achieved her greatest commercial success interpreting songs written by other artists, 2016’s Silver Skies Blue, with material co-written with Ari Hest,was nominated for a Best Folk Album Grammy Award in 2017. It was Collins’ first such nomination in over 40 years.
Tickets are available online at rmts.bc.ca , by phone at 250-386-6121 or in person at the McPherson or Royal theatre box offices. The concert is a fundraiser for the Victoria Folk Music Society.
editor@mondaymag.com
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