POP MUSIC REVIEW : Collins, New and Old

To say that Judy Collins sends a mixed message would be an understatement.

Her background is in the ‘60s folk boom, but on Tuesday she came on stage at the new Irvine Barclay Theatre at UC Irvine in a shiny, silver-sequined jacket and black tights--garb that virtually shouted, “I am not a folkie!”

But if Collins’ look was almost ready for Vegas, her outlook was in large part a product of those olden folkie-hippie days. Her 80-minute set included hymns to love and peace, a misty recollection of Woodstock, a homage to John Lennon, and, of course, “Both Sides Now.”

Toss in renditions of a Stephen Sondheim standard, an a cappella Irish ballad, up-to-the-minute adult contemporary pop stylings from Collins’ new album “Fires of Eden,” and you’ve got . . . well, it’s hard to say just what you’ve got. Pop cosmopolitanism, maybe. But whatever it was, it certainly sounded grand.

At 51, her voice sounds richer, bigger and more brilliant than it did on her ‘60s hits, and Collins did justice to her full range of pop diva stylings.