Tonight I had a fabulous experience. My harmonica player Matt passed along two tickets to me today for the Judy Collins concert at Jesse Hall. I went with Michael, and we just got back. Judy, in her sixties, still has the clear-as-a-bell voice of an angel. She did nearly as much story-telling as she did singing, and she is a wealth of history, knowledge and humor. Before the show Michael and I chatted with the couple next to us, and they are regulars at the University Concert Series and donate money, so they get some perks. We got to talking about the fact that I am a musician, and at intermission, the man asked
me if I'd like to go meet Judy with him, since he has the option of meeting all of the performers. I jumped at the chance, and although they pushed us through in quite a hurry (there were about 15 of us that got to meet her downstairs in her dressing room) I had a chance to get my picture with her, and slip her assistant my card. (Oh the degrees of separation!) I unfortunately didn't have a CD on me. I couldn't have imagined I would have had such a perfect opportunity to give Judy a CD. I am so uncomfortable with the idea of self-promotion. Everyone says you have to do it, but it's so uncomfortable for me to push things on other people. So here I missed a chance to possibly have her ear turned on my CD. But, just the experience of seeing a 60's icon sing, shaking her hand, and having my picture taken with her was great.

I have one of Judy's albums, and I have to say she's more fabulous live. It really caused me to think about how much more listeners are endeared to performers when they actually get to see them in the flesh. You might listen to someone on CD and think they're good. But when you have a chance to experience their art firsthand, get a feel for their world view, and their sense of direction, you feel you know them, if only a little bit. Live performance is truly where the magic happens...