Judy Collins

Café Carlyle, NYC, May 5, 2015

Reviewed by Annamaria Alfieri for Cabaret Scenes

White-haired Judy Collins looked beautifully regal when she took the Carlyle stage, but she still sounded like the young folk singer she was, with a voice clear and strong all the way up to the high notes. It was a wonder. Her song list included many of her hits, some of her own composition, and some by men from her past, which came with a patter of juicy gossip.
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She began with her own “Open the Door” (“Song for Judith”), setting a tone for her intimate and generous connection with her appreciative audience.
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Then, she launched right into Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now,” delivered with phrasing that made the lyrics mature poetry.
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Likewise, her nuanced rendition gave Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” a new, deeper, more soulful meaning. Collins’s own “My Father” was aptly paired with Jacques Brel/Gerard Jouannest/Eric Blau/Mort Shuman’s “Sons of…” She put down her guitar and accompanied herself at the piano for a trio of her own numbers: “Since You’ve Asked,” “Arizona” and “The Blizzard.”

Adding a touch from the classic American songbook, Collins sang a chorus of Hammerstein and Kern’s “All the Things You Are” before moving right into Sondheim’s glorious “No One Is Alone” and “Send in the Clowns.” A perfect encore of John Lennon’s “In My Life” was followed by “Amazing Grace,” which she invited her audience to sing with her. They did, but softly, not to drown out the beauty of that clear voice.