{"id":15946,"date":"2019-04-01T12:56:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T16:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15946"},"modified":"2020-04-30T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T15:08:42","slug":"judy-collins-i-love-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/judy-collins-i-love-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Judy Collins: “I Love Maine!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ColinY<\/span>ou can\u2019t call it a real Maine summer without Judy Collins performing at Jonathan\u2019s in Ogunquit. \u201cI\u2019ve been coming to Maine for fifty years, at least,\u201d says the Manhattan-based singer, famous for her renditions of \u201cSend in the Clowns\u201d and \u201cBoth Sides Now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Jonathan\u2019s, the ritual is personal, a matter of sweet luck. \u201cJudy\u2019s been performing here forever,\u201d says Larry Johnson. \u201cAt least twice a year. We had to do two shows that first night for 480 people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How does a perennial summer visitor pack for Maine? Is there a special black sweater she has to bring or that perfect scarf for a brisk walk along Marginal Way? \u201cI always pack for every season, wherever I go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked what her favorite haunts in Ogunquit are, she says, \u201cJonathan\u2019s! This is not a sightseeing trip. We get there and go on stage. There\u2019s time for a nap. Then we\u2019re on to the next destination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, but if she was born in Seattle (she moved to Colorado at age 10) and she performs often on the East Coast, she\u2019s seen the U.S. from both sides now. Which Portland is best? \u201cI like them all,\u201d she says. Aha, a global perspective. There is a Portland, UK; a Portland, New Zealand; and a Portland in Ontario, Canada!<\/span><\/p>\n

You have to go deeper to what makes Maine a great stop for her. For any Judy Collins fan, there are some interesting cultural connections. Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods<\/em>), who wrote \u201cSend in the Clowns\u201d as part of A Little Night Music<\/em>, went to summer camp as a child at Camp Androscoggin in Maine (see \u201cInto the Woods,\u201d February\/March 2019<\/a>), so we\u2019re a cultural convergence zone. Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young was once romantically linked to Collins. His \u201cSuite: Judy Blue Eyes\u201d is all about the girl, a stunning tribute. Years ago, Stills spent a lost winter renting a place in Cape Porpoise on Pier Road, with views of the lobster boats. Or so a local legend goes. Why? Maine is both a great place to be seen and a great place to disappear. Sometimes you just feel like having a lot of seagulls around you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Singer\/songwriter (and Maine native) Will Holt (famous for \u201cLemon Tree\u201d) retired to Long Lake in Maine (see \u201cMusic Man,\u201d Summerguide 2013<\/a>). It was an easy guess that Holt and Collins were friends during their Greenwich Village days, and we were right. \u201cOh, I was very fond of him. I was opening for Will Holt and Dolly Jonah in Chicago and in New York. He was a big influence on me,\u201d along with contemporaries Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interesting. Will Holt moved back to Maine. Maine really is one of those places intentionally off the grid. Has Collins ever fantasized about living here?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love Maine, but I\u2019m a Colorado girl. That\u2019s where I\u2019ll spend more time when I can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hey, not everybody\u2019s a foodie. But she does pack quite an audience. Her music lights up the Maine coast when she\u2019s here\u2014from both sides now.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Click here to\u00a0view past\u00a0Letters from the Editor.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[321,127,126,323,322],"class_list":["post-15946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor","tag-judy-collins","tag-maine","tag-portland","tag-portland-magazine","tag-portland-monthly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18503,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15946\/revisions\/18503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}