Since leaving her long-term berth at Elektra Records in the mid-'80s, Judy Collins has made a couple of more stabs at major-label affiliation, but without re-igniting the kind of commercial appeal it takes to sustain such deals. Nevertheless, she has managed to make quite a few records, many of them fitting into niche categories -- Christmas albums, children's albums, etc. Live at Wolf Trap, released on her own Wildflower label, presents her standard concert repertoire. Recorded June 18, 2000, at the venerable Virginia outdoor auditorium where she has appeared regularly for decades, the show was also videotaped for a public television special. The 61-year-old singer, still in remarkably fine voice, gives her audience the songs they came to hear, her hits and signature tunes: "Someday Soon," "Both Sides Now," "Send in the Clowns," "Amazing Grace." Also included are some other songs she's been performing since the 1960s, her own composition "My Father," "Bird on a Wire," "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." She sings several traditional songs, harking back to her earliest days as an interpretive folk singer. (An a cappella "Danny Boy" is especially impressive.) And she performs a couple of worthy recent songs from her own pen, "Mountain Girl" and "Beyond the Sky." The arrangements are familiar, and though Collins takes occasional slight liberties with the melodies, she never disturbs listeners who have the original recordings burned into their memories. It's easy to cite songs that were left out ("Suzanne," "Chelsea Morning"), and it would have been nice if Collins had talked a little more, but it would be hard to part with anything here, so maybe such complaints are just a way of wishing this was a two-disc set.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo