Stephen Stills and Judy Collins perform at Anderson Center
The pair packed the Osterhout Theater on Aug. 28
By Jillian Forstadt - September 4, 2017
Students and community members took to the Anderson Center's Osterhout Concert Theater on Monday evening to reminisce with performers Stephen Stills and Judy Collins, currently on their first tour together to promote their upcoming collaborative album.
Stills is best known for his time in the folk-rock super-group Crosby, Stills & Nash, as well as his role as vocalist and lead guitarist of the late 1960s band Buffalo Springfield.
Collins, an American singer and songwriter, first gained fame in the 1960s Greenwich Village music scene. She reached mainstream popularity after releasing of a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now," for which she won a Grammy award.
She is known for her covers of other Mitchell compositions too, including "Chelsea Morning." Before playing this classic song for the crowd, Collins shared an anecdote that Bill and Hillary Clinton named their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, after hearing Collins' rendition in London.
The rest of the concert saw familiar songs accompanied by stories from the two performers' varied and extensive careers.
Stills and Collins had worked together for almost 50 years before touring together. Stills was featured as back-up guitarist on Collins' 1968 album "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," and later wrote the popular Crosby, Stills & Nash hit "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" about her.
While the duo played many of their beloved originals at BU, they also covered songs like "Girl From the North Country" by Bob Dylan, "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen and "Handle With Care" by Traveling Wilburys.
For many students in attendance, the concert was a reminder of the songs of their parents' generation. Sophia Cohen, an undeclared sophomore, grew up listening to the popular songs of the pair, and felt the weight of seeing their legacy in person for the first time.
"It's always great to hear live music," Cohen said. "It's even better when it's music that you love and feel like is part of your DNA, which these songs are for me."
The show was sold out in the enclosed sections of the amphitheater and packed in the lawn seating, according to Rosanne Norris, the marketing director at the Anderson Center. The lawn, which opens for concerts throughout the warm-weather months, can hold up to 1,500 people and has previously drawn big crowds for headliners such as Tony Bennett, Diana Ross and Earth, Wind and Fire.
According to Norris, that the show was marketed to both students and community members, but with the concert falling close to the start of school, few students were expected to come.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a senior majoring in geography and general manager of WHRW 90.5 FM, said that a lack of student attendence is also a result of the performers being brought in by the Anderson Center. While Goldberg is a fan of the duo, he added that many students may perceive the performers as outdated.
"To a modern audience, they are not well known, as much as they should be," Goldberg said. "To a person like me who was raised on that folk-rock kind of stuff, these two were gods, in a sense. It really depends on who [the Anderson Center] brings."
Their album, "Everybody Knows," is set to release on Sept. 22.