Sixty-five years ago, Judy Collins released her debut album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, and introduced a voice that would spend the next six decades making other people’s songs feel newly written — Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” the old hymns, the show tunes, the interior work of Leonard Cohen, all of it drawn through something unmistakably her own. At 87, she is drawing the road to a close with the Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour (named for the Crosby, Stills and Nash song Stephen Stills composed about his relationship with her), which arrives at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland on November 14 for what the venue calls her final Vermont performance after nearly seven incredible decades.
About the Show
The Sweet Judy Blue Eyes tour covers more than 50 dates across North America through spring 2027, and each night is being documented: performances are being captured for an upcoming film about Collins’ life and legacy. In Rutland, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra accompanies her on stage, giving the evening the feel of something between a concert and a proper sendoff.
Collins began as a classical piano prodigy, studying under pioneering conductor Antonia Brico and performing Mozart publicly at 13, before folk music redirected her entirely. What followed was a career of improbable range: 55 albums spanning six decades, multiple Grammy Awards, Grammy Hall of Fame recognition, and seven Grammy nominations. Her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” reached No. 8 in 1968; “Amazing Grace” reached No. 15 in 1970; “Send In the Clowns” reached No. 19 in 1975. In 2023, the Grammy-nominated Spellbound arrived as her first studio collection composed entirely of original, self-penned material. She published a poetry collection in 2025 as well, Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss and Redemption. Of the tour, Collins has said: “Touring has been the great thread of my life — city to city, song to song, face to face.”
Venue & Logistics
The Paramount Theatre is a historic theater in downtown Rutland, with 838 seats intimate enough for Collins’ voice to do what it has always done best. Part of the north-country concert calendar. Lobby doors open at 6 p.m., seating begins at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $70, $90, $105, and $175 (plus tax and fees). Complimentary vouchers are not valid for this performance. Buy tickets