Throughout her career, Judy Collins said she always has searched for songs that can give meaning or transform. "That is what the voice is meant to do, search out a deeper meaning," she explained. "I only sing songs I love passionately.
" The audience at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept.
16, will have the opportunity to experience two of music's most distinctive voices in a bill headlined by Collins, with Nanci Griffith as guest. Collins' voice, sweet and clear as a bell, once described as "the voice of the century," her singing sounding like "liquid silver," is one of the most widely recognized in popular music. She was the first to record the songs of Leonard Cohen and she brought material by Randy Newman and Joni Mitchell to the attention of the public.
Her first major single, Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," went to number eight in the nation in 1968 and won Collins the music industry's highest honor, a Grammy. Her interpretation of "Amazing Grace" also is familiar to many. Collins said she sees her career in music as her way of service.
"It's my way of bringing something spiritually uplifting," she said. "I know it's a calling, finding the songs I was meant to sing and locating the songs I was meant to write and sharing them with an audience." That well could be Griffith speaking too.
"I've been blessed to be in a family of artists who have been given this free reign to explore the genres of music that we love, and I've never been in competition with myself," she once told the Gavin Report, a music industry trade publication. "I've never had this overwhelming overnight success, and so it's been a really great career. I love being a chameleon and able to go in and out of rock'n'roll and pop and folk music.
" Like Collins, she has been critically acclaimed in that creative journey. A Grammy winner and multiple Grammy nominee, Griffith, like Collins, has been embraced by Bob Dylan. Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris have performed her songs.
Judy Collins' history with Bob Dylan is a long one. He wrote "I'll Keep it With Mine" for her. In 1968, they shared a bill at Carnegie Hall for the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert.
By the mid 70s, Collins had recorded many of Dylan's songs. Dylan specifically requested that Griffith, who Rolling Stone hailed as the "Queen of Folkabilly," sing "Boots of Spanish Leather" at his historic Madison Square Garden anniversary concert. She was the first to record Julie Gold's Grammy-winning classic, "From a Distance.
" Kathy Mattea recorded her "Love at the Five and Dime" and "Listen to the Radio" and Suzy Bogguss interpreted her "Outbound Plane." Griffith's Portland show, a separate set from Collins, will touch on her extensive body of work, which covers more than 20 albums, including her latest CD, "Ruby's Torch," a collection of intimate torch songs, some written by her and others by some of her musical heroes, including Willie Nelson, Tom Waits and Jimmy Webb. "The challenge in performing these songs (from 'Ruby's Torch') is that you have to somehow remain true to the spirit of the song but infuse it with your own story," she said.
"If you don't fill the song with your own emotions, then you really are just going through the motions." It's a safe bet that neither Griffith nor Collins will be doing that. "The real pleasure of being an artist is climbing to another level, becoming a true instrument of the music," Collins said.
Music helps us, she believes. "It's the fourth dimension of course. We really live in the fourth dimension," Collins said.
News RSS