rev_m_collins

JUDY COLLINS
Judith

as reviewed by Jack Crompton at Amazon.com, April 30, 2008

Singing bird with rainbows on your wings...

Although Judy Collins has recorded many fine albums over her lengthy career, I have to put this one in a special category. It’s a beautiful collection of songs that, much like her 1971 release of ‘True Stories and Other Dreams’, reveals an intimate portrait of this very sensitive songwriter and poet.

This was a hugely popular record release by Judith due to the immensely captivating ‘Send In The Clowns’, written by the legendary songwriter Steven Sonheim. But it is Judy’s vocal to that track that put it in another dimension. It’s haunting, heartbreaking and powerful.

The rest of the album is equal in quality. Most notably, Judy’s own brilliant composition: ‘Houses’, a dream-like tale filled with metaphors and potent archetypes. The closing phrases achieve such altitudes of poetic beauty it gives one the chills down the spine.

Several other tracks on here deserve mention also: The album opens with a great song from Jimmy Webb, ‘The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress’. Like all of Webbs best compositions, it is quite moving in it’s melancholy sentiment. A brilliant rendition of the old classic, ‘I’ll Be Seing You’ is probably the best I’ve ever heard that song performed by anyone. Wendy Waldman’s wonderful lullaby, ‘Pirate Ships’ also is a sparkling gem. Soft and touching, it has a beautiful, and transcendent melody. A touching tribute to the late Duke Wellington is offered by Judy in ‘Song for Duke’ and is also quite well done.

Judy’s own songs are not plentiful on her albums, but when they do appear they usually are of exceptional quality. I like and respect that about her. She rarely serves up schlock. Here, ‘Houses’ is a real stunner, as was ‘Secret Gardens’ was on ‘True Stories’. Although she certainly created a lot of great music since this release (1975), I think it safe to say this album represents this unique and gifted singer/songwriter at her creative peak.

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