2008 Woodie Awards
Collins makes SIUE comeback
Matthew Schroyer
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: A&E
The line started forming more than an hour before the concert, and by the time the doors to the Morris University Center's Meridian Ballroom swung open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, it had snaked around the Goshen Lounge and neared the front door.
Some wore commemorative Mississippi River Festival shirts they had purchased the previous night at the "Flashback to the MRF," produced by Alumni Affairs. For some, it would be the third night in a row they had come to SIUE to relive moments from the MRF.
Lyle Ward, who at the age of 21 directed the MRF in its beginnings and spoke at "Flashback" the previous night, was excited to see Judy Collins perform once more.
"They may have seen her five times," Ward said. "They came over and over and over again."
With a filled and darkened Meridian Ballroom, Judy Collins took the stage shortly after 8 p.m., and was instantly greeted with a standing ovation. Without a word, she broke into song and played "Both Sides Now," from her Grammy-award winning 1967 album, "Wildflowers."
She received thunderous applause after the first line of the song, "bows and flows of angel hair," when the audience recognized the song. The song was followed quickly by "Someday Soon," which she included on the follow-up album to "Wildflowers," 1968's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes."
Despite being a few years shy of 70, Collins sung with the strong, unique voice that made her a folk legend and a hit with the MRF crowd. Collins did not shy away from her age, either, coyly changing the last lines of Paul McCartney and John Lennon's "When I'm Sixty-Four" to "Will you still need me when I'm 84?"
"Oh my God, we were so young!" Collins said, reflecting on the years she played at the MRF. "We couldn't imagine what 30 looked like!"
Collins showed some of the political fire that made her a prominent activist in the '60s and '70s, asking the audience to pray for monks in Myanmar. For the most part though, she let her singing voice do the talking.
Some wore commemorative Mississippi River Festival shirts they had purchased the previous night at the "Flashback to the MRF," produced by Alumni Affairs. For some, it would be the third night in a row they had come to SIUE to relive moments from the MRF.
Lyle Ward, who at the age of 21 directed the MRF in its beginnings and spoke at "Flashback" the previous night, was excited to see Judy Collins perform once more.
"They may have seen her five times," Ward said. "They came over and over and over again."
With a filled and darkened Meridian Ballroom, Judy Collins took the stage shortly after 8 p.m., and was instantly greeted with a standing ovation. Without a word, she broke into song and played "Both Sides Now," from her Grammy-award winning 1967 album, "Wildflowers."
She received thunderous applause after the first line of the song, "bows and flows of angel hair," when the audience recognized the song. The song was followed quickly by "Someday Soon," which she included on the follow-up album to "Wildflowers," 1968's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes."
Despite being a few years shy of 70, Collins sung with the strong, unique voice that made her a folk legend and a hit with the MRF crowd. Collins did not shy away from her age, either, coyly changing the last lines of Paul McCartney and John Lennon's "When I'm Sixty-Four" to "Will you still need me when I'm 84?"
"Oh my God, we were so young!" Collins said, reflecting on the years she played at the MRF. "We couldn't imagine what 30 looked like!"
Collins showed some of the political fire that made her a prominent activist in the '60s and '70s, asking the audience to pray for monks in Myanmar. For the most part though, she let her singing voice do the talking.
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