For those unaware, when you’ve been making music for as long as folk music icon Judy Collins, songs become more than just familiar melodies, they’re treasured memories connecting you to people and places of your past.

For her newest collection of recent recordings, White Bird - Anthology Of Favorites (out May 7th, 2021 via Cleopatra Records), Collins has hand-selected a number of songs that remain dear to her heart so much so that she can still remember exactly where she was the first time she heard them.

Take, for instance, this story Collins shares about one of her best-known, most beloved songs: “It was 1967 when I received a phone call at three in the morning from Al Cooper, the founder of Blood Sweat & Tears."

"He said he followed this girl home from a bar where she had told him she was a songwriter. She played him some of her songs and after she played him one particular song, he picked up the phone and called me."

"He put the girl on the phone and Joni Mitchell sang me her great song ‘Both Sides Now.’”

Or this story about another young songwriter: “In 1966 I was getting ready to make my sixth album, In My Life. Someone sent me a song called ‘I Think It’s Going To Rain Today’ by Randy Newman."

"I never heard of this guy but loved the song. Randy had not started thinking of himself as a singer-songwriter, but after I recorded this song, he put out his own version and became the gold standard."

"He has told me I started his career but I'm sure he would've done it without me.”

1. 'White Bird'
2. 'Chelsea Morning'
3. 'Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)'
4. 'Pack Up Your Sorrows'
5. 'When I Go' [feat. Willie Nelson]
6. 'I Think It’s Going To Rain Today'
7. 'Last Thing On My Mind' [feat. Stephen Stills]
8. 'Blackbird'
9. 'Both Sides Now'
10. 'Diamonds & Rust' [feat. Joan Baez]
11. 'Send In The Clowns'

Opening with a brand new, never before released cover of the dulcet 'White Bird, the 1969 gem from San Francisco hippie rock group It’s A Beautiful Day, Collins moves seamlessly on with her new versions of Joni Mitchell's 'Chelsea Morning,' The Byrds' 'Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season),' the Americana pop bounce of 'Pack Up Your Sorrows,' a rather subtly imbibed version of 'When I Go' [featuring Willie Nelson], and then we get her nod back to Randy Newman on the piano-led 'I Think It’s Going To Rain Today.'

Up next is one of my own personal favorites, the upbeat 'Last Thing On My Mind' [featuring Stephen Stills] which is in turn backed by the free flowing majesty of 'Blackbird,' the passionately imbued ambiance of 'Both Sides Now,' with this dreamy throwback album rounding out on the mid-tempo 'Diamonds & Rust' [featuring Joan Baez], closing on the rivetingly mesmerizing 'Send In The Clowns.'

White Bird - Anthology Of Favorites will be released on digital, on CD in a deluxe digipak and on limited edition WHITE vinyl, starting May 7th, 2021 from Wildflower Records (exclusively distributed by Cleopatra Records).

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