Working on Spellbound, Collins pulled in a collective of musicians, including co-producer Alan Silverman and singer and guitarist Ari Hest, in addition to multi-instrumentalist Thad DeBrock (Duncan Sheik, Nelly, Jonas Brothers), bassist Zev Katz (Marc Anthony, Elton John, Billy Joel), and drummer Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega, Joe Jackson).Ĭollins, who released five albums in the past five years, also launched a podcast, Since You’ve Asked, in 2021, featuring interviews with producer Clive Davis, investigative reporter Christiane Amanpour, and actor Jeff Daniels.įor Collins now, it’s never too late to check off something new. It’s easy to picture Collins in her formative years exploring the wilderness on “When I was a Girl in Colorado.” Like a picture book, Collin paints a delicate folk tale in the lyrics, Rivers danced on canyon walls / paintbrush nodded in the springtime / I could hear the bluebirds calls. The album title references a formative time in Judy’s life when her pure love of the outdoors-she even considered becoming a park ranger at one point-and captures the pivotal childhood memories on “When I Was a Girl in Colorado.” Spellbound crosses Collins’ life during the 1960s folk scene in Greenwich Village in New York on “So Alive,” and her “hell-raising” years and social activism in “Thomas Merton,” also an ode to the author, monk, and anti-war activist.
It’s the only thing I was doing.”ĭedicating the album to folk influences Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie in her liner notes, Spellbound finds Collins mirroring their personal storytelling in song. “If anything spoke to me as a song, write it. “My job was to sit down at the piano and write a poem that day or try to finish the ones that were sitting there,” said Collins in an interview.
Her 29th album is a collection of original songs written entirely by Collins, including the first single “When I Was A Girl In Colorado.”Īn introspective album for Collins, one that reflects on her earlier years, Spellbound introduces 12 modern folk songs recently written by the 82-year-old artist, and features a bonus track of her 1990 Fires of Eden single “The Blizzard.”Īll of Spellbound was a result of Collins being compelled to write during the pandemic. In her nearly 60-year career, Judy Collins has never released an album of all-original material, until Spellbound, out Feb.