Judy Collins shares live stories on ‘Spellbound’

Judy Collins has made a lot of other songwriters famous. She began her career singing other peoples’ songs, turning American audiences onto artists like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell with her hit interpretations. But over the years she’s also developed her own songwriting voice — and now, for the first time, every single song on her latest album is an original. The album is called Spellbound and the songs on it tell stories from Judy’s life – one that’s taken her from the wilds of Colorado to some of the biggest stages in the world. In our conversation, Judy shares some of those stories, talks about her songwriting process and the advice she’s gotten from some of her very well-known songwriter friends, and we get into some of the issues and experiences that have fueled (and still fuel) her activism throughout her life. You’ll also hear her perform some of her new songs – beginning with the album’s title track.

Here’s Judy Collins with “Spellbound,” live for World Cafe.