Tanglewood Popular Artist Series Adds August 30 Concert, Judy Collins - Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour

The Tanglewood Popular Artist Series, which each summer brings a star-studded lineup to the music festival's Koussevitzky Music Shed, adds Judy Collins – Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour on Sunday, August 30 at 2:30 p.m. 

A recent Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame inductee, Collins has performed at Tanglewood on 11 occasions since her first concert at the venue in 1968, and this summer’s farewell tour offers a final chance to experience her timeless voice and storytelling live. Joining Collins especially for the Tanglewood concert are co-stars Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash. One of music’s “most reliable and empathetic songwriters” (Pitchfork), Carpenter has sold over 17 million records over the course of her renowned career, including 2025’s critically acclaimed Personal History. “One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone), Cash has earned four Grammy awards and in 2021 became the first woman to receive the Edward MacDowell award for music composition. They are joined by special guest Amanda Shires, winner of the 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year prize from the Americana Music Association. 

Tickets go on sale Friday, April 3 at 10 a.m. at tanglewood.org.   

About Judy Collins

Judy Collins has long inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. In the 1960s, she evoked both the idealism and steely determination of a generation united against social and environmental injustices. Six decades later, her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 55-album body of work, and heed inspiration from her spiritual discipline to thrive in the music industry for half a century. 

The award-winning singer-songwriter is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Her stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell's “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album, Wildflowers, has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Judy’s dreamy and sweetly intimate version of “Send in the Clowns,” a ballad written by Stephen Sondheim for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, won Song of the Year at the 1975 Grammy Awards. She’s garnered several top ten hits and gold- and platinum-selling albums. Recently, contemporary and classic artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Leonard Cohen honored her legacy with the album Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins. 

In 2026, Collins bids adieu to the road with her Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour, launching July 4, 2026 and running through 2027—an expansive final run across North America and beyond that gives audiences one last chance to experience her timeless voice and storytelling live. The tour follows a remarkable recent chapter: six new albums released since 2015, the artistic renaissance of Spellbound (her first album of all self-penned songs, nominated for Best Folk Album at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards), and her 2025 poetry collection Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss and Redemption—a vivid extension of the honesty and grace that have defined her enduring legacy. 

About Mary Chapin Carpenter

One of music’s “most reliable and empathetic songwriters” (Pitchfork), Mary Chapin Carpenter has sold over 17 million records over the course of her renowned career. With hits like “Down At The Twist And Shout” and “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” she has won five Grammy Awards (with 18 nominations), two CMA Awards, two ACM Awards, is one of only 22 female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the 2023 ACM Honors Poet’s Award. 

In 2025’s Personal History, Carpenter’s 17th album, she presents a set of songs more autobiographical than any collection that has come before, offering songs as memoir, when the wisdom that comes from growing older becomes a north star, whether one is celebrating life’s joys or navigating life’s inevitable losses.  The title is taken from the album’s opener, “What Did You Miss.” The music is both buoyant and wistful, as she sings in her rich alto, “I’ve been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I’ve been writing it down song by song/As a personal history.” 

Carpenter’s previous solo recording, 2021’s One Night Lonely (Live), was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards—exactly 30 years after her very first nomination. A rare solo performance, the album was recorded at Virginia’s legendary Wolf Trap and features songs from across her acclaimed career, including from her 2020 solo studio album, The Dirt And The Stars.  

In addition to her work as a musician, last fall Carpenter unveiled her new podcast Hope is a Muscle, which finds her in conversation with people from all walks of life, including Joan Baez, Adriene Mishler, John Darnielle, and U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin. During its run, the podcast was in the top five music podcasts on both Apple and Spotify Platforms. Previously, in 2020, Carpenter released the three-part audio liner notes podcast, One Story, with American poet, Sarah Kay. 

About Rosanne Cash

“One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone), Rosanne Cash is America’s foremost musical woman of letters, a literate and incisive artist whose poignant and distinctive vocals turn every song into a revelatory tale. A singular artist at the peak of her interpretive powers, Cash has earned four Grammy awards—three for The River & The Thread (2014, Blue Note)—and 12 additional nominations. Among many other accolades, in 2021 she became the first woman to receive the Edward MacDowell award for music composition. Her acclaimed 2010 memoir Composed has been described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.” Cash was recently elected as an Honorary American member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

In 2023, Cash and her husband John Leventhal, the six-time Grammy winning songwriter, producer and life-long creative partner, launched RumbleStrip Records, an initiative to reexamine and reissue Rosanne's early work, originally released on Columbia / Sony Music, and beyond. 

The first two releases were a deluxe remastered version and first vinyl pressing of the 30th anniversary of Cash’s landmark album The Wheel and Leventhal’s debut solo album, Rumble Strip (2024), released 50 years into his remarkable career. 2025 began with The Essential Collection, a new 40 song/40-year two-CD compilation highlighting Rosanne’s deep catalogue of songs including 10 number one hits. The album coincides with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit, Rosanne Cash: Time Is A Mirror. The exhibit explores Cash’s more than 40-year journey as an artist, songwriter and storyteller, and how she has embodied both tradition and innovation across her musical career. It runs through March 2026. 

Cash and Leventhal are currently writing the music to the theatrical production of Norma Rae. 

About Amanda Shires

A truly singular creative force, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Shires has made an extraordinary career out of restlessly pursuing her deepest instincts and passions.  

Since getting her start playing fiddle with the legendary Texas Playboys at the young age of 15, the West Texas native has brought her nuanced songwriting and boundless originality to a series of critically acclaimed solo albums, collaborated with the likes of John Prine and Justin Townes Earle, and earned the 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year prize from the Americana Music Association (AMA). Shires is also the founder of The Highwomen, a supergroup she performs in alongside Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Brandi Carlile.  

Shires received unanimous praise for her album Take It Like A Man. Written and recorded during lockdown, Take It Like A Man is a fearless song cycle of ruthlessly candid tunes documenting Shires’ life as a woman during a tumultuous time and features guest vocals by Maren Morris and Brittney Spencer. Her ninth studio album, Nobody’s Girl, was released in the fall of 2025.