She’s had a legendary career as a singer and songwriter that spans more than six decades.
Judy Collins was a significant voice in folk music in the 1960s, but evolved to perform everything from rock and country music to standards. She’s still writing, performing, and touring, with a performance set for Santa Barbara on November 16.
"I love it. People have their point where they say they've had enough. But, I've done this for 65 years, and I still love it," said Collins.
Collins said she was destined to become a musician.
"I was born into a very musical family. My father started his radio show in Seattle in 1937. I was born in 1939. He had a radio show for 30 years in Seattle, Los Angeles, and then Denver, so I was surrounded by music," said Collins. "I played the piano from about five, and I always sang."
Her father was blind, but it didn't stop him from pursuing his career aspirations, and Collins said his drive always inspired her.
She took classic piano lessons during her childhood, but when she was 16, she discovered folk music, and that became her focus.
Collins started performing as a teenager in Denver clubs. She eventually moved to New York and, in 1961, released her first studio album.
"The first seven years of my recording and performing career, I was singing songs that I learned, like 'Turn, Turn, Turn' and 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone," said Collins. "Songs from Tom Paxton, and Gordon Lightfoot, and even (Bob) Dylan."
But Collins said she found her own voice a few years later, which she connected with a legendary poet turned songwriter.
"In 1966, I got a call from Leonard Cohen's best friend, and she said Leonard would like to come and see you, and play you his songs. He came, and he sang me 'Suzanne.' I recorded it the next day, and it became like they say with the internet now, it went viral," said Collins. "He and I became friends, but he said he didn't understand why I wasn't writing songs. I walked over to my piano, and sat down, and wrote 'Since You Asked,' my very first song. I've never stopped writing."
While Collins credits Cohen with motivating her to write songs, she said she returned the favor, getting him to perform his compositions. He told her he just couldn't do it. "I pushed him out on stage at a big fundraiser I was doing. He finally got out on his own and sang, and everyone went nuts. From then on, he sang his own songs, and from then on, I wrote my own songs."
Collins has recorded more than 50 albums. She’s a Grammy award-winning artist, an Oscar-nominated documentary director, and a lifelong social activist, speaking out on issues ranging from the Vietnam War to abortion rights.
With a catalog of music spanning six decades, how does she choose what she performs in concert?
"I always mix up the set list, so I can get in some of my favorites from the old days, and some of what I am writing now," said Collins.
Collins will perform with Tom Rush at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theater on November 16.
