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Kieron Tyler |

The voice is fluting, translucent. The melodies it carries are linear yet sinuous, their rise and fall akin to undulating terrain. The instrumentation – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, some keyboards – is unobtrusive. Spíra is about the voice. It is also timeless – sounding as if it were recorded at any point in the last 60 years.

Liz Thomson |

On a rainswept Monday, “Miss American Idol 1956”, as Judy Collins likes to introduce herself these days, drew a near-capacity crowd to the Union Chapel, Islington, for an intimate concert that felt at times as if it were in a large living room.

mark.kidel
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