Judy Collins - Wildflower Festival [DVD]

This is a really nice program! If you don't like folk music, keep moving, but if you love folk music, you'll love this.I never really "got" Judy Collins, but she is very pleasant in this and in the live concerts I've seen. The production of the music is nice and sparse, so she is actually more enjoyable to me here than in a few concerts I've been to. Still, you can't help getting that "pop" feeling.The others in this show, however, are just great! I've never seen Eric Anderson live to the best of my recollection, so this is a nice treat. Doing a Lou Reed song is a cool touch. Folk music really transcends. Maybe that how it has survived all this time.Tom Rush and Arlo Guthrie are both as humorous and talented as ever and these two performances are, in my opinion, worth the price of admission. The big group sing at the end falls a little flat, but doesn't it always? You need Pete Seeger to really do it right.The only thing wrong with this is Disc Two. Why is it there? Just to make the package seem bigger? These bonus features are interviews with the performers. Pretty much the same questions are posed to each of them. And they aren't any more lengthy than they are in-depth. They could easily have been tacked onto Disc One.I can't really take off points for the stupidity of the bonus disc, I guess. That's not what you're thinking about buying this item for. So, I'm going a full five stars on this baby. Folk lives!

This DVD captures a live concert of the Judy Collins Wildflowers Festival recorded in San Diego, June 30, 2002. Judy and her co-stars Arlo Guthrie, Eric Anderson, and Tom Rush shine in this rich performance of folk classics, including City of New Orleans, Amazing Grace, The Circle, In My Life, and Both Sides Now. Each singer performs a solo set, and all four join in a rousing encore. Collins sings her own Home Before Dark and Open the Door, as well as standards such as Send in the Clowns. Each provides a sparkling performance and the four blend voices beautifully in the encores. Production values are terrific. An unforgettable gathering of four of America's best loved folk singers of the past 40 years. Not to be missed.

Okay, just when you thought there could not possibly be any more country folk, urban folk, suburban folk, folk rock, rock folk, semi-folk, or quasi-folk music from the folk revival of the early 1960 to review here I am again reviewing some of the stars of that time-in their dotage. Well, maybe not dotage, but we are all, including Judy Collins, Eric Andersen, Tom Rush, and Arlo Guthrie, getting a little long in the tooth, and no one can dispute that hard fact. The real question is whether the artists in this compilation still have it, at least for those of us in that dwindling, graying, arthritic, prescription-needing folk audience that fills the small church basement "coffee houses" on this planet. And they do. Still have it, I mean.That said, this little Wildflower Festival setting in 2003 provided Judy and her guests with a chance to show their stuff, new and old. Now, for those who have heard Judy Collins sing back in the day the question is why she did not challenge Joan Baez for the "queen" of folk title. She had the voice, the style, and the looks (ya, that WAS important, even then) to do so. I have been running a "Not Joan Baez" series and will deal with that question there at some other time but her work here is pretty good, especially her well-known cover of Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon". Eric Andersen, who I have already looked at in a "Not Bob Dylan" series hold forth on his "Blue River". Tom Rush, ditto, on "The Remember Song". Finally, Arlo, whom I have covered in relation to his father's, Woody Guthrie, music "steals" the show here with his storytelling, notably the kid's story, "Mooses Came Walking".

Great combination of singers and some of their best known songs. I have seen Judy and Arlo in concert last year, 2015, and welcomed a video product of their performances.

I was so happy to see one of my favorite singers in this wonderful work of music. You won't be unhappy if you buy this. Thanks so much, Amazon does it again.

Wonderful performance. I especially loved listening to "Thirsty Boots."

Nice package. Not as good as Judy Live At Wolf Trap. Judy carries the show. However, at the end of the concert all four sing a few songs together. They blend their voices well and it is a very enjoyable conclusion to the concert.Live Concert (NetFlx 367/10)

I heard about this artist from a friend and she certainly lives up to expectations, a wonderful singing voice, a lovely experience