Big Dog 92-7 Music Guide

Introducing... Judy Collins

RELEASE
August 22, 2006
LABEL
Rhino
GENRES
Folk, AM Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Folk Revival, Contemporary Folk

Album Review

Rhino's 21-cut Judy Collins collection is truly a solid introduction to the often misunderstood singer and, to a lesser extent, songwriter from the new folk era of the early '60s, whose career has yet to come to a complete end. Her great run was from the mid-'60s through to the early '80s, and while Frank Sinatra gets many accolades (and justly for his reading of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns"), it's Collins' version that was her last big Top Ten smash hit, and rightfully so because it captured a different nuance. Hell, even Van Morrison started covering the tune after her version. But that's far from all: there's a reading here of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" that got the enigmatic songwriter discovered, and she covered Dylan, Henley, and Frey, and of course had her hit with Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" that made the melancholic folk-jazz tune a pop hit. Collins has one of those voices that was perhaps better suited to the American theater, but in the great age of rock and pop radio -- and on AM radio it was anything goes in those days -- she was a near constant presence. This selection proves exactly why and gives a solid overview of what her contributions were, and they were sizable. This is the Judy Collins that needs to be discovered by all the kids who are finally digging into Baez, David Ackles, Tim Buckley, and the like.
Thom Jurek, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. A Maid of Constant Sorrow
  2. In the Hills of Shiloh
  3. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
  4. Tear Down the Walls
  5. In the Heat of the Summer
  6. Hard Lovin' Loser
  7. Suzanne
  8. Just Like Tom Thumb Blues
  9. Since You Asked
  10. Both Sides Now
  11. Who Knows Where the Time Goes
  12. My Father
  13. Farewell to Tarwathie
  14. Song for Judith (Open the Door)
  15. So Begins the Task
  16. Cook with Honey
  17. Send in the Clowns
  18. Bread and Roses
  19. Desperado
  20. Granddaddy
  21. Amazing Grace