Autumn 2023 will see the truly legendary American singer-songwriter Judy Collins return to the UK for a run of must-see tour dates.
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter is offering a once in a lifetime peek into her creative and personal continuums with the concert series ‘Big Hits & Spellbound’. This special long-form concert series features music themed around favourites from Collins’ six-decade career, and her epiphanic latest release, Spellbound, her 55th album, and her first ever complete collection of originals.
The eight-date tour will begin on 28th September at The Barbican in London, followed by dates in Deal, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bury St Edmunds, before ending at City Varieties in Leeds on 10th October.
Tickets are on sale now, available from https://bit.ly/JCtour2023 .
The dates were original due to take place in November 2022, but were postponed after Collins was forced to take time out to recover after breaking her elbow.
Big Hits & Spellbound is an approximately 80-minute program of songs that whisks the audience away to a lifetime of stories, songwriting and personal revelation.
Spellbound is Judy’s most autobiographical and personal album. It revisits the thrilling 1960s Greenwich Village years; recreates breathtaking moments in the wilds of Colorado during Judy’s childhood; snapshots her hellraising years; and frames quiet moments of nature from just a few years back. Select entries from the album will be rounded out with timeless hits from Judy’s career and beyond.
In a way, one can trace the origins of Big Hits & Spellbound back to a single, kind gesture by Leonard Cohen in 1966. The story goes that, back then, the poetic singer-songwriter had made a special trip to Judy’s apartment to play her his song, ‘Suzanne’, and, while there, Leonard asked her why she wasn’t writing her own material. Her response was to sit down at her Steinway that very day and write, ‘Since You’ve Asked’. Judy has been writing ever since then.
Big Hits & Spellbound is a celebration of a creative renaissance Judy has been experiencing in recent years. In 2017, her stunning version of ‘Amazing Grace’ was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. That same year, she was nominated for a Grammy ‘Best Folk Album’ for Silver Skies Blue, her collaboration with singer-songwriter and producer Ari Hest. Two years later, at the age of 80, she summited the top of the American Billboard charts with Winter Stories, a duet album with Norwegian folk icon Jonas Fjeld, featuring the Chatham County Line.
Judy Collin’s UK tour dates are as follows:
28th September London Barbican
29th September Deal Astor Theatre
1st October Birmingham Town Hall
4th October Milton Keynes The Stables
6th October Edinburgh The Queen’s Hall
7th October Manchester RNCM Concert Hall
9th October Bury St Edmunds The Apex
10th October Leeds City Varieties
