PBS To Air Judy Collins Concert

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Reasoning, ``I think I'm singing better than ever,'' Judy Collins captured her 21st consecutive summer concert at Wolf Trap on videotape last June. Three days later, PBS scheduled ``Judy Collins â€” Live at Wolf Trap'' to air during December.

``I wanted to capture the essence of what I do on stage,'' Collins says. ``I think this does.''

The one-hour special will be shown as part of public television's pledge drive (check local listings, mark your calendar and have your credit card handy). One gift for phoning in a pledge will be Collins' new CD of the concert.

``I'm very happy with the TV show,'' she says. ''`Danny Boy' is a cappella. I've known it since I was a child but never sung it. My father used to sing `Danny Boy.' It's such a thrill to sing it finally. I also include `She Moves Through the Fair.' It's an old, traditional song, sort of an Irish journey I take you on. `Gypsy Rover,' which I've never recorded, is there.''

And, of course, there are her hits: ``Amazing Grace,'' ``Send in the Clowns,'' ``Someday Soon'' and ``Both Sides Now.'' Of the last, she sings it differently now than when she recorded it in 1967. ``I like it a lot better now,'' she says.

Continuing to talk about the songs on her concert, Collins says, ''`The Blizzard' is my novel within a song. It's about a snowstorm and three people in a diner. The essence of the story is that it does something for you to speak about your life to a stranger, someone you probably will never meet up with again. It's almost as good as therapy.

``I was afraid `The Blizzard' wouldn't get on the TV show. It's long. But public TV sometimes lets you listen to a long song. I wrote it 10 years ago for a TV special. It has become one of the centerpieces of my concerts and recordings.

''`Mountain Girl' is a new song, about a city girl longing to be back in the mountains. I go to Colorado enough to keep that feeling almost at bay,'' she says.

Collins, 61, has started her own label, Wildflower Records.

``Next year will be my 40th anniversary in the record business. My first album was in 1961. I was on Elektra 24 years. Since I left there, I knew I wanted to have my own label someday. I finally said, `Why not?'

``Record companies are interested in artists who sell 10 million records. They don't have time to focus on artists with long-standing careers. I need a record company that cares about me.

``And I think people are beginning to want to hear melodies and lyrics again.''

Why did she choose the name Wildflower?

``The name has always reverberated for me,'' Collins says. ``Wildflowers flourish in the spring in Colorado, where I'm from, and my first breakthrough album (in 1967) was `Wildflowers.' My first song-writing was on that album.''

The CDs ``Judy Collins â€” Live at Wolf Trap'' and ``On a Wintry Night'' are on Wildflower Records. Of the Christmas songs on ``Wintry Night,'' she wrote ``Come Rejoice,'' and ``The Bleak Mid Winter'' is a duet with actress Tyne Daly.

``I pulled together my favorites. I wanted to make something with Christmas spirit that people will want to play over and over every year.

``Part of the Christmas album was out on another album. I added things to it and spruced it up. My dad always sang `I'll Be Home for Christmas' a cappella. `Away in a Manger' I've always loved. `The Wexford Carol,' which I recorded with the St. John the Divine choir, I never put out before on a recording.''

Collins, who performs 60 to 80 concerts a year, recently appeared at a benefit with Harry Belafonte. She recalls his ``Scarlet Ribbons'' playing on the radio when she began singing professionally, and that seeing him brought back those precious memories.

``I was 19 and my husband and I got a job in a lodge in Rocky Mountain National Park,'' she says. ``I baked pies in a wood stove. After people had eaten, I'd take the guitar out and sing. I got a job filing at the university in Boulder. That winter I had a baby. We had rent to pay, food and gasoline to buy. He said, `Why don't you get a job doing something you know how to do?'

``I went to Michael's Pub in Boulder. They had barbershop quartets and accordion players. I auditioned and got a job. My husband quit his job delivering papers and stayed home with the baby. I didn't know people like me could make a record. I thought records were for learning songs from.''

Fortunately for all, she learned lots and lots of them. An enduring star, in her words, ``had started on my way.''

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On the Net:

On the web: http://www.judycollins.com.