Judy Collins – The Judy Collins Concert

I adore her. I discovered her in my early teens on Sunday afternoon Italian TV when I was a kid. They used to play reruns of Rainbow Quest, the TV show that Pete Seeger had [in 1965 and 1966] before it got axed because he was branded a communist. I saw Elizabeth Cotten on it for the first time and Judy Collins. I remember taping it, and I burned holes in that tape. Like I’d be looking at Judy going, WTF? What is she doing? It’s really through her that I got my chops as a guitarist, watching and rewatching her hands on guitar – well, and from a fingerpicking boyfriend I had, but he was a bit of an arsehole.

Her voice is not bel canto style at all. It’s just out there. She was a prodigy child, playing the piano at a very early age. And her intuition in music should be celebrated much more. She’s the one who got Joni Mitchell to number one because she was covering her first. She’s also the one who broke Leonard Cohen. Yes, they would have become famous, anyway but she was such a conduit. I had brief dealings with her when my management asked if she’d read the lyrics to her song ‘Albatross’ over my single, ‘Solomon Said’. When her manager said, I think it will work…having her on my record was a dream come true. A sheer make-believe moment.