Star rating: **** Even in a career as long and eventful as hers has been, Judy Collins won't have experienced shoutin' up a closie before she began her debut appearance at Celtic Connections.
Star rating: ****
Even in a career as long and eventful as hers has been, Judy Collins won't have experienced shoutin' up a closie before she began her debut appearance at Celtic Connections.
At first, the sound was truly awful. Fortunately, her engineer quickly sorted it out and Collins proceeded to charm and beguile with the womanly warmth that has epitomised her heartfelt singing since the 1960s.
Approaching 70, Collins has to make occasional, subtle alterations to familiar melodies but her singing chops are still fundamentally in fabulous shape. Revisiting the songs she heard growing up, she had the audience singing along within minutes, then made her classics, including a gorgeous My Father, simply glow.
Jimmy Webb's Paul Gauguin in the South Seas may not have been quite the exclusive that Collins seemed to suggest but with pianist Russell Walden's support, she negotiated its dramatic, involved contours magnificently.
