Judy Collins Albums (32)
'Wildflowers/Who Knows Where the Time Goes'
Release Date 2/13/2006
Tracks 19
Label WEA International
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Portrait of an American Girl'
Release Date 3/29/2005
Tracks 13
Label Wildflower
See Album Tracklist and Review
'All on a Wintry Night'
Release Date 10/24/2000
Tracks 14
Label Wildflower
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Judy Collins has enjoyed a long, popular career as a folk musician, so it is nice to see her flex her musical muscles and attempt some holiday favorites. Despite a few hammy moments, All on a Wintry Night is a first-class Christmas album, filled with beautiful performances and understated arrangements. Collins has a wonderful voice, and puts it to good use on tracks like "The Blizzard," where she manages to capture the magic and beauty of a snow storm in a simple piano ballad. She takes on lesser known carols such as "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Wexford Carol," and puts them among some of the better known favorites. The album does take a very Christian point of view, and may put off those who do not share her religious viewpoints. And her spoken-word intro to "Away in a Manger" is simply too cheesy, detracting from an otherwise good song. But these complaints are easy to overlook if only because of the quality of the music. In a music scene glutted with terrible Christmas albums, it is nice to see one artist do it right and really put her heart into the project. Any fan of good Christmas music will probably enjoy this unique album. ~ Bradley Torreano, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Though defined early on as a folksinger, Judy Collins was tackling theater music in orchestral settings as early as her 1966 In My Life album, and she scored a Top 40 hit in 1977 with Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music. So, an album of Broadway standards, most of them arranged by Sondheim orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, seems like a good idea for her. Collins' voice has a timbre similar to that of Broadway star Barbara Cook; they share a certain warmth and sincerity, though Cook's singing has an ingenuousness to it, while Collins' is more ethereal and aloof. Nevertheless, Collins' best moment on Classic Broadway is her version of "Till There Was You," Cook's showcase number from The Music Man. She also fares well on reflective songs like "Younger Than Springtime," "They Say It's Wonderful," "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and a remake of "Send in the Clowns" that is as good as ever. But the becalmed, uninvolved nature of her singing is less well suited to songs that require some emotional input -- the stormy, self-deceptive "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," say, or the comically mocking "My Funny Valentine." (One thing Collins never displays is a sense of humor.) Worst of all is Rodgers & Hart's "Bewitched," an expression of female arousal that Collins simply can't handle; it's no wonder that she uses the bowdlerized pop lyrics employed in the 1950s by people like Doris Day, but even Day sounded sexier. As such, Classic Broadway is a mixed bag by a wonderful singer who might have been better advised in some cases to select songs she was better able to interpret. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Christmas at the Biltmore Estate'
Release Date 10/21/1997
Tracks 14
Label Elektra/Asylum
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Thanks to a varied selection of songs and a warm, intimate atmosphere, Christmas at the Biltmore Estate is an engaging holiday album from Judy Collins that effectively emphasizes her lovely voice and charming way with a song. Certainly, it's the kind of record that will only appeal to hardcore fans, but those fans will find this to be a thoroughly enjoyable record perfect for intimate holiday nights. ~ Rodney Batdorf, All Music Guide
'Voices (Includes Songbook and a Memoir)'
Release Date 1/1/1995
Tracks 13
Label Clarkson Potter Publishers
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Come Rejoice!: A Judy Collins Christmas'
Release Date 9/20/1994
Tracks 15
Label Rhino
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
It's amazing that it took Judy Collins until 1994 to make a Christmas album. Having decided at long last to do such a project, the singer seems to have had specific ideas about how she wanted to approach it. Accompaniment includes only piano, some restrained synthesizers aping strings or guitars here and there, and the occasional boys choir, all the better to set off Collins's angelic voice. When it comes to the Christmas repertoire, she seems particularly interested in the nativity, picking one song after another that deals with the birth of Christ and reciting from the Gospel according to Luke during "Away in a Manger." She even adds to the list of songs about the Christ Child with her own "All on a Wintry Night" and "Come Rejoice." Her third compositional contribution is "Song for Sarajevo (I Dream of Peace)," which adopts the persona of a child in that war-torn city. As Christmas records go, this one has a formal beauty typical of Collins's art-song orientation. It's lovely, but not much fun. Even when she sings "Let It Snow" (robbed of its thrice-repeated title and exclamation marks), she sings it in a slow, regal manner rather than in the more familiar, bouncy style. The album ends with a re-recording of her hit arrangement of "Amazing Grace." ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Judy Sings Dylan...Just Like a Woman'
Release Date 11/9/1993
Tracks 11
Label Geffen
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Fires of Eden marked Judy Collins' debut on Columbia Records, and she seemed to rise to the occasion with her best overall body of new material in more than a decade. Not everything on this album is memorable, but what is, is intensely so, beginning with the opening cut, "The Blizzard," a seven-minute epic that rates alongside any of Collins' most beautiful work from her classic years on Elektra. The words and music combine to form a screenplay in miniature, and the transitions between standard lyric and conversational passages in the lyric only add to the complexity of this long, flowing, lyrical piece. Her version of "The Air That I Breathe" is pretty enough, even if it won't make anyone forget the Hollies' recording, but a lot of the new songs have a special power. The title track offers an alluring vocal performance of a surprisingly impassioned lyric, while "Home Before Dark" presents her in a more ethereal mode. The production and instrumentation are the fullest heard on one of Collins' records since her transition from folk music to art song on the Wildflowers album, which makes the best of the melodies here come alive in rich and robust fashion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
