By John Voket

RIDGEFIELD — Are you the kind of person who celebrates the beauty of winter but dislikes being immersed in a mix of all too familiar holiday standards that virtually disappear on December 26 - nearly three months before the arrival of spring?

If that's the case, then renowned and Grammy-winning artist Judy Collins has just the thing to help get you through the entire season - a brand new album entitled Winter Stories.

Fans and those less familiar with the prolific singer/songwriter can enjoy some of those 'Winter Stories' along with a selection of other Judy Collins favorites and be among the first to pick up a copy (and maybe a few to give as gifts) when she arrives for a two-night stand at the Ridgefield Playhouse December 4 and 5.

Collins chatted with The Newtown Bee recently about the tour, the new album, her recent tour with Steven Stills, and her latest partnership with Norwegian folk artist Jonas Fjeld and the masterful bluegrass band Chatham County Line (CCL). Fjeld and CCL will be sharing the stage with Collins during her Ridgefield stop, and are also featured prominently on her Winter Stories project.

In February 2019, Collins, Fjeld, and CCL (Chatham County Line) headed down to vibey Echo Mountain Studios — a former stately church — in Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to this, the three artists knew each other tangentially, but never officially worked together in this context.

Fjeld is a beloved Norwegian artist who might be best known internationally for his 1990s trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, featuring The Band’s Rick Danko. In 2014, Collins recorded Fjeld's sublime track “Angels In The Snow.”

“I knew Jonas and Chatham County Line would be a great fit with me,” Collins said in her advance. “The language of music overarches everything, including geography. When we came together in the studio, we found we could speak to each other in a way that was compatible and nuanced.”

“What bonded us was a shared love of great songs,” Fjeld added. “I’m a winter guy — in my part of the world its winter seven months of the year. Winter is a wonderful time to be close to the ones you love.”

The musicians ended up tracking the album basics in a few days of fun and freewheeling recording sessions. Collins recalled: “We would gather around tell stories and exchange histories — that exchange is very much a part of the folk tradition.”

The resulting album, Winter Stories, is a collection of classics, new tunes, and a few surprises, featuring spirited lead vocal turns, breathtaking duets, and Collins' stunning harmony singing. “Learning songs is fundamental to my core being — it’s always an adventure to peek behind the curtain to understand what the writer went through,” Collins added.

The set includes versions of Joni Mitchell's "The River" and Jimmy Webb's "Highwayman," as well as an epic, seven-minute treatment of Collins' own "The Blizzard."

A couple of those numbers came up during Collins call with The Bee. But the conversation began with a revelation — that Collins was completely unaware she was the subject of a conversation recorded by Steven Stills that was featured in a recently released documentary about the early 1970s music scene around Laurel Canyon entitled Echo In The Canyon.

The Newtown Bee: Your name popped up in the Laurel Canyon documentary I was watching a couple of nights ago. It was Steven Stills talking about how he 'borrowed' a melody you wrote and turned it into "Questions" for The Buffalo Springfield. Then Clapton 'borrowed' the formula and turned it into "Layla."

Judy Collins: John, this is the first time I'm ever hearing that story. I really didn't know about it (laughing) - so much for gossip and innuendo in the folk music process. Steven and I have been friends for 51 years or so I think, and we just finished 115 shows together over the course of the last year-and-a-half. During that time he did tell me that he had borrowed a chord structure from one of my songs to write "Questions." I guess it was [the song] "My Father." But I didn't know anything about the "Layla" connection - that's very interesting.

The Bee: Candidly Judy, I was at a loss about how to dig into our chat. But when your name came up just the other night I figured we'd jump off talking about that song and maybe your connection to Steven, who you also inspired to write "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".

Collins: There are a lot of things that have connected me and Steven musically. We've always had a deep respect for one another's music and the tour we did was so much fun, we were on stage the whole time together. We walked on stage together and I think we only did one song each alone during the entire show. We told stories together and had a thoroughly marvelous time. It was a tour worth waiting for if you know what I mean.

The Bee: Your new album Winter Stories drops a few days before we get the full immersion experience when you come to Ridgefield to play it. Do you remember what went through your mind the very first time you heard Jonas Fjeld?

Collins: I met with him years ago when we recorded his song "Angels In The Snow" together. And we re-recorded it for this new album in a different incarnation. I love his songs and he is a wonderful writer. Some of his songs I'm singing on the new album are just incredible. I spent the entire flight from New Mexico the other day listening to his songs and learning them because I'm going to have to perform them for you in Ridgefield in a couple of weeks. He's such a delight, and this is a good time for us.

The Bee: Who introduced you to him?

Collins: My manager was married to a Norwegian and she knew Jonas, so we met through him.

The Bee: I love songs that take the time to really draw you in, so I was thrilled to learn you re-recorded "The Blizzard" for Winter Stories. Had you been waiting for an opportunity to give that number a new treatment - or was it simply just a perfect thematic fit for the new album?

Collins: It was the perfect thing to do for this album - and to be able to record it with this great group Chatham County Line. They are really something - so I feel so fortunate that I was able to do that.

The Bee: We shouldn't let our chat go without also talking a bit about Chatham County Line. Had you already been working with them before you decided to put Winter Stories together?

Collins: Actually it all came together as Jonas and his work with the group came to my attention. So when we sat down to talk about making an album together on my label, we thought about it and talked about the kind of material it would include. It encompasses Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year's, and even Valentine's Day I suppose, so we really had an opportunity to delve into songs of ours we either hadn't done in a long time, or were old favorites, or properly, like "The Blizzard." You know Columbia [Records} never put the album with that song out - they canceled the release in the states. It was released elsewhere in the world and you can still find a copy of it, but I really felt "The Blizzard" needed a proper approach and this was the perfect group to do it.

The Bee: What other songs did you feel were particularly important for the new album?

Collins: I was thrilled to include the Stan Rogers song "The Northwest Passage." You know I really missed out on Stan despite the fact that I was so involved with Canadian songwriters. I missed him. But I was invited to sing at a Stan Rogers music festival a few years ago in Nova Scotia and I was waiting in my dressing room trailer and I heard this song from the stage rolling up the mountain in the rain. I absolutely freaked out. And it was "The Northwest Passage," which is something of an anthem up in Canada. So I missed that song and I missed Stan, too because he died very tragically I think about 20 years earlier in an airliner fire. So this song is based on the voyages of Lord Franklin whose ships were lost while he went looking for the Northwest Passage. And it was a perfect fit for Jonas and Chatham County Line. I also had been waiting for a long time to record Joni Mitchell's song "River."

The Bee: Did you and Joni ever sing that song either in concert or just sitting around the house together?

Collins: No, Joni and I never sat around the house together singing (laughs). As a matter of fact, the first and perfect meeting occurred on the telephone when she played me "Both Sides Now" in 1967 in the company of Al Cooper [producer, co-founder of Blood, Sweat, & Tear]). He ran into her at a show and fell in love with her and followed her home - and he ended up putting her on the phone with me at 3 am to sing "Both Sides Now." We had a couple of other meetings at her home, where Life Magazine came and took pictures of us in her treehouse, we had a couple of meetings in New York, and she sang me a couple of other songs that I ended up recording.

The Bee: Is it going to be challenging to pare down your concert setlist to include the new material, while still making room for other songs that long-time fans have come out hoping to hear?

Collins: We'll have to decide after we start rehearsing together, which is going to start in a few weeks. During that time we'll figure it out. We have 11 songs to get to the stage and we'll certainly have a number of other favorites we'd like to sing.

The Playhouse engagement of Winter Stories is one a few select concerts Collins, Fjeld, and Chatham County Line will perform. For tickets ($58) call or visit the box office at 80 East Ridge, call 203-438-5795, or go online HERE

Check out Judy Collins performing "The Blizzard" on a German TV broadcast in May, 2016:

Judy Collins picks up her trusty 12-string guitar to give Austin's KUTX a heartfelt rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now":