{"id":973867,"date":"2019-12-04T08:34:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T15:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=920425"},"modified":"2019-12-04T08:34:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T15:34:25","slug":"song-you-need-to-know-judy-collins-cover-of-joni-mitchells-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/song-you-need-to-know-judy-collins-cover-of-joni-mitchells-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Song You Need to Know: Judy Collins\u2019 Cover of Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u2018River\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Joni.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Decades before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/lana-del-rey-joni-mitchell-for-free-894246\/\">Lana Del Rey<\/a> introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/joni-mitchell\/\" id=\"auto-tag_joni-mitchell\" data-tag=\"joni-mitchell\">Joni Mitchell<\/a> to millennials, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/judy-collins\/\" id=\"auto-tag_judy-collins\" data-tag=\"judy-collins\">Judy Collins<\/a> was spreading the Canadian bohemian gospel. Mitchell\u2019s heart-wrenching Christmas classic \u201cRiver\u201d has just received its <a href=\"https:\/\/jonimitchell.com\/music\/covers-song.cfm?id=River\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">687th cover<\/a>, and it\u2019s arguably one of the best: Collins\u2019 rendition, released Friday off her new record <em>Winter Stories<\/em>, gives the piano-laden track a refreshing update.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRiver\u201d is Mitchell\u2019s second most covered song, right behind \u201cBoth Sides Now,\u201d the latter of which Collins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8L1UngfqojI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">covered&nbsp;in 1967<\/a> and won a Grammy for Best Folk Performance.&nbsp;Part breakup ballad, part Christmas song, \u201cRiver\u201d is a seasonal sulker that\u2019s ideal to ice skate to while crying about your ex (especially if they happen to be the British member of a supergroup).<\/p>\n<p>It may be predictable for Collins to record the track, but it\u2019s worth noting that not only is Mitchell\u2019s catalogue as legendary and influential as ever, but Collins\u2019 voice is as remarkably clear as it was in 1961. Backed by bluegrass outfit Chatham County Line, the 80-year-old seamlessly ebbs and flows through the octaves, gently keeping the pace to mirror the 1971 original. \u201cI\u2019m so hard to handle\/I\u2019m selfish and I\u2019m sad,\u201d she sings. \u201cNow I\u2019ve gone and lost the best baby\/That I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A collaboration with Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld, <em>Winter Stories<\/em> tells the story of John Franklin\u2019s fatal expedition to the Northwest Passage. Just as \u201cRiver\u201d sits cozy in the middle of the second side of <em>Blue<\/em>, Collins\u2019 cover also appears halfway through the record. 52 years after she first helped introduce Mitchell\u2019s songwriting prowess to the world, Collins continues to share her legacy \u2014 and shows no signs of stopping.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3> Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/judy-collins-joni-mitchell-river-920425\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decades before Lana Del Rey introduced Joni Mitchell to millennials, Judy Collins was spreading the Canadian bohemian gospel. Mitchell\u2019s heart-wrenching Christmas classic \u201cRiver\u201d has just received its 687th cover, and it\u2019s arguably one of the best: Collins\u2019 rendition, released Friday off her new record Winter Stories, gives the piano-laden track a refreshing update. \u201cRiver\u201d is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-973867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 09:03:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KFMU Solar Powered Radio","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}