As watched televised reports of , she felt the sadness, the panic, the devastation deep down, she said.
“As a Denver native, I love Colorado,” the legendary folk singer said a few weeks ago. “It’s so awful and heartbreaking for me and everybody who loves Colorado and those mountain towns and the history I’ve experienced.”
Collins’ roots run Colorado deep. She grew up near Cheesman Park, and between her years at East High she worked in Winter Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. After she made the switch from playing classical to folk music, she started gigging around the state.
“I started singing professionally in Boulder at Michael’s Pub and then came down to Denver’s Exodus after working in Central City and Aspen,” said Collins. “So I’ve spent most of my life being a part of the Colorado history and fabric, at least the contemporary part of it.”
And so it’s no surprise that is inducting Collins via a big celebration Nov. 8 at . Also a part of Collins’ Hall of Fame class: Singer-songwriter Bob Lind, the folk band Serendipity Singers and jump-blues hero Chris Daniels.
The four inductees will join previous classes that include the late John Denver, folk pioneer Harry Tuft, late concert promoter Barry Fey and others. Future inductees include Joe Walsh & Barnstorm, recording studio Caribou Ranch and the late Dan Fogelberg.
Collins is a skillful storyteller. Ask her about her company in the state’s 3-year-old hall of fame, and she’ll share her memories.
“Dan (Fogelberg) sang one of my songs and made it very famous,” Collins said of “Since You’ve Asked.” “I wrote it in 1967, my very first song I ever wrote, and I was encouraged to write songs by the great Leonard Cohen who said, ‘How come you’re not writing your own songs?’ “
Pre-Twitter times being what they were, Collins didn’t even know Fogelberg had covered her song and released it on his “Twin Sons of Different Mothers” LP in 1978.
“The only reason I realized that Dan Fogelberg had recorded it was because I got a huge check in the mail,” Collins said. “It was one of his more famous songs.”
While Colorado remains in Collins’ heart, and she returns regularly to ski Vail and Aspen Highlands, she lives in New York’s Upper West Side. She’s recently back from Ireland, where she recorded a follow-up to her popular PBS special “Judy Collins Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Celebrating 50 Years of Timeless Music.”
“We did the Metropolitan show last year, and it was such a big fundraiser that they greenlit (the Ireland) one and another show that I’ll do next year,” said Collins. “We’ve been pushing PBS to do this for 20 years, and they finally came around.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394, rbaca@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bruvs
Judy Collins
The singer-songwriter will headline the Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place, at 8 p.m. Nov. 8. Tickets, $38-$99, are available via .
