Tag Archives: American folk singer

Judy Collins: A Voice Still Lovely and Strong

Judith Marjorie Collins was born on May 1, 1939, in Seattle, Washington. She studied classical piano as a child with Antonio Brico, and made her public debut at the age of 13, performing Mozart’s “Concerto for Two Pianos.” Three years later, she was playing the guitar, drawn to the folk revival sounds of the early 1960s and the music particularly of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She performed in Greenwich Village, New York, busking and playing in clubs until she landed a contract with Elektra records with whom she was associated for thirty-five years. In 1961, at the age of … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan: Epic Poet of His Age

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and was raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, northwest of Lake Superior. His grandparents hailed from Lithuania, Russia and the Ukraine and his parents, Abraham Zimmerman and Beatrice Stone Beatty, were part of the area’s small, but tightly knit Jewish community. Bobby spent much of his youth listening to the radio, mesmerized by the musical strains of country and early rock and roll. On Christmas Eve, 1956, he made his earliest known recordings with two friends in a department store booth, in which they sang the songs made popular by … Continue reading →