Judy Collins Biography

Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939 in Seattle, Washington) is an American folk & standards singer and songwriter, known for the stunning purity of her soprano; for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk, showtunes, pop, and rock and roll); and for her social activism.

As a child Collins studied classical piano with Antonia Brico, making her public debut at age 13 performing Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos.

However, it was the music of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and the traditional songs of the folk revival of the early 1960s, that piqued Collins' interest and awoke in her a love of lyrics. Three years after her debut as a piano prodigy, she was playing guitar. She eventually made her way to Greenwich Village, New York City, where she busked and played in clubs until she signed with Elektra Records, a record label with which she was associated for 35 years. In 1961, Collins released her first album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, at the age of 22.

At first, she sang traditional folk songs, or songs written by others, in particular the social poets of the time, such as Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and Bob Dylan. She recorded her own versions of seminal songs of the period, such as Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn". Collins was also instrumental in bringing little known musicians to a wider public (in much the same way Joan Baez brought Bob Dylan into the public eye). For example, Collins recorded songs by Canadian poet Leonard Cohen, who would become a close friend over the years. She would also go on to record songs by singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, and Richard Farina, long before they gained the national acclaim they would later achieve.

While Collins' first few albums were comprised of straightforward guitar-based folk songs, with 1966's In My Life, she began branching out and including work from such diverse sources as The Beatles, Cohen, Jacques Brel and Kurt Weill. Joshua Rifkin produced and arranged the album, adding lush orchestration to many of the numbers. The album was regarded as a major departure for a folk artist, and set the course for Collins' subsequent work over the next decade.

With her 1967 album Wildflowers, also produced and arranged by Rifkin, Collins began to record her own compositions, the first of which was entitled "Since You've Asked". The album also provided Collins with a major hit, and a Grammy award, in Mitchell's "Both Sides Now", which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Collins' 1968 album, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, was produced by Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills & Nash), with whom she was romantically involved at the time. (She was the inspiration for two notable songs by Stills: the Buffalo Springfield's haunting "Bluebird", and the CSN classic, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"). Time Goes had a mellow country sound, and included Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon" and the title track, a Sandy Denny song which has been covered by several artists.

By the 1970s, Collins had a solid reputation as an art song singer and folksinger, and had begun to stand out for her own compositions. She was also known for her broad range of material: her songs from this period include the traditional gospel song "Amazing Grace", the Stephen Sondheim Broadway ballad "Send in the Clowns" (both of which were top 20 hits as singles), a recording of Joan Baez' "A Song For David," and her own compositions, such as "My Father" and "Born to the Breed".

Like other folk singers of her generation, Collins was drawn to social activism. She is a representative for UNICEF and campaigns on behalf of the abolition of landmines. Following the 1992 death of her son, Clark Taylor, at age 33, after a long bout with depression and substance abuse, she has also become a strong advocate of suicide prevention. Her 2003 book, Sanity & Grace, chronicles her recovery from her son's suicide and attempts to provide some comfort and guidance to other families dealing with the loss of a loved one to suicide. She describes the "Seven T's" as a means for going through this process of recovery: Truth, Therapy, Trust, Try, Treat, Treasure, and Thrive. The Truth is that there should be no guilt in suicide; Therapy helps people express their emotions and seek grief counseling; Trust is the effort to believe that one can make it through the loss and keep a belief in life and in the future; Try means to stay away from drugs and alcohol or any excess--including overeating--as a means to deal with the loss and pain; Treat means to take care of the mind, body, and spirit with exercise and meditation; Treasure means to keep the memory of the moments to be treasured, and for this Collins recommends writing and keeping a journal; and Thrive means to be positive, hopeful, open to love and others, and continuing to know that you can rebuild your life on a basis of hope.