https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiM23iff5lk
By. K.D. Norris
The visit to St. Cecilia Music Centers folk series stage by Judy Collins — no adjectives or background needed — has been circled on the calendar by local folk/pop/classic rock fans since the concert was announced last year.
It is astounding, in fact, that there may still a few tickets available a week before Sweet Judy Blue Eyes comes to town Thursday, Feb. 1, for a 7:30 p.m. concert.
But then to make a good week even better, St. Cecilia announces the final Folk Series concert of the season will be the return to Royce Auditorium of Rhiannon Giddens — Grammy winning singer/songwriter, Carolina Chocolate Drop, part of the New Basement Tapes super(folk)group; in case you need adjectives and background.
Giddens will return to St. Cecilia on May 17. And, like her April 2015 first visit to the state, this show will likely be sold-out as well. Her return will likely focus on her newest album “Freedom Highway”, which was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
While Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, she began work as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert in 2013, and followed that up in 2014 by stealing the show again on T-Bone’s “New Basement Tapes” project — sealing it from the likes of Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford — with her version of Bob Dylan’s “Spanish Mary”. Oh, ya, she followed that up with her critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy nominated album “Tomorrow Is My Turn.”
But not to steal the show from Judy Collins …
Collins’ most recent recording, “Silver Skies Blue”, earned her another in a long list of Grammy honors, being nominated for Best Folk Album in 2017.
Collins’ musical history only started with her firm commitment to social activism in the 1960s. Five decades later her 50-album body of work includes, to only scratch the surface, her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album “Wildflowers”, her intimate version of “Send in the Clowns”, as well as several other top-ten hits from gold- and platinum-selling albums.
Tickets for Judy Collins are $45 and $55. Tickets and can be purchased by calling 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, or purchased online at scmc-online.org .
