Grammy-winning Renaissance woman Judy Collins returns to Two River Theater in a Friday concert presented by MusicWorks.
She’s made her mark in so many places over the course of some 50 years — as a novelist, children’s book publisher, record label exec, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and spokesperson for mental health/ suicide prevention issues — that to brand her a “singer-songwriter” is akin to calling Superstorm Sandy a “post-tropical cyclone.”
While her own compositions have included a tribute to her father and a one to Che Guevara, it’s as an interpreter (more like owner) of other people’s songs — be it Joni (“Both Sides Now”), Dylan (“Mr. Tambourine Man”), Leonard (“Bird on a Wire”), Lennon-McCartney (“In My Life”), Sondheim (“Send In the Clowns”) or Sunday school (“Amazing Grace”) — that Judy Collins has staked her place in the Village coffeehouses and canyon patios of pop music heaven.
Graced with a voice that hasn’t faltered at the age of 75 — and with an activist edge that hasn’t dulled since her association with Abby Hoffman and the Yippies — Collins returns to the main auditorium of Two River Theater this Friday, July 18, for the latest in what’s shaping up to be a string of regular visits to Red Bank.
Scheduled for 8 pm, it’s an intimate evening presented, as in seasons past, by MusicWorks. The event promotion company established by former Count Basie Theatre CEO Rusty Young has booked numerous performers into Two River’s Rechnitz Theater space with varying degrees of success, but with Collins they’ve nurtured a matchup of artist and venue that’s become a recently minted tradition with area audiences.
Tickets ($60 – $85, with $115 VIP option that includes meet and greet reception) can be reserved right here.
