Best. Concert. Ever. (...Or the time I got to see Judy Collins again!)

My seat wasn't as close this time, but the theatre was so intimate it didn't matter.

February 7th I headed to Edwardsville Illinois. The Wildey Theatre was hosting a dream night for me. My favorite living folk singer was in town.... And I had the pleasure of seeing another Judy Collins concert.
It was the best concert I have ever been to. This time she sang more of favorites; Both Sides Now, My Father, Since You Asked, Send in the Clowns, and to absolutely floor me she sang the song I never thought I'd get to see her perform... Farewell to Tarwathie. I adore that song. She sings with whales! Which is clearly why I never thought she would perform it live. How do you get whales on stage?!
Of course technology made this easy, and let me say those humpback whales sounded even more amazing in that sound system. But Ms. Collins and that voice brought me to tears. It was so great.
She told the stories of the songs, then sang them. She sang songs off of her new album; which is such a beautiful album. She sang old standards. One of the other big highlights of the evening was when she performed the song Pure Imagination from the Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie. In doing this she took a song that I have known for years and knew in a very specific setting and turned in on it's head. Once this song pulled up the images of the movie (which I love) but in her voice it became bigger. It left the candy coated world of the factory and became trees and birds and flowers. She released that song like only she can.
She sang some Baez, and Cohen, and to my delight she sang City of New Orleans. I've seen Arlo Guthrie perform this live before, but she blew it away. She led the crowd to sing along, and had such a perfect cadence I swear I felt the swagger of the train cars.
It does occur to me I could go on and on about her and how great this show was. But I do need to end this post. She ended it with Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was perfect. Perfect song, perfect show, perfect night.

There she is! It didn't occur to me to take a picture of her till her encore.

Not my video, but this should give you a clear example of the amazingness.