Stills and Collins have, apparently, managed to stay friends over the years and this album is almost a case of “what might have been” – a way, perhaps, to bring some closure to their romantic relationship and speculate on what might have happened if they had recorded together when they were younger. There’s a sense of squaring of the circle about this recording. Similarly, Collins own ‘ Houses’, her response to ‘ Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, wasn’t recorded until six years after their break up and has also been re-recorded for this album. ‘ Judy’, which appears on this album, was recorded as a demo in 1968 but was lost and didn’t appear on record until 2007 on Still’s “ Just Roll Tape” album of demos and out-takes.

Their brief affair was already pretty much over as Crosby, Stills and Nash were coming together in 1968 but it served to inspire Stills to write some songs that would capture the imagination of CS&N’s audience, as well as songs that wouldn’t see the light of day until comparatively recently. Judy Collins is, of course, the subject of famous Stephen Stills songs like “ Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “ Helplessly Hoping”. There’s no obvious reason why they shouldn’t but it’s odd that they never recorded together when they were a couple yet are doing so now, relatively late in life.

In this case, it’s the surprise of seeing these two artists recording together in 2018. Sometimes you can be genuinely surprised by an album for any number of reasons.

Stephen stills and judy collins album