1966 Judy Collins concert program includes promo for Bob Dylan, glimpse of Denver folk music in the 1960s

During a recent dive into a storage closet we came across several boxes of archival documents and promotional items, including some that predate the founding of Swallow Hill Music.

A concert program for Judy Collins at the City Auditorium Theatre in Denver on Sunday, January 23, 1966 definitely caught our eye. The Denver Friends of Folk Music – a forerunner of sorts of Swallow Hill – put on the show.

While fragile, the CD jacket-sized program remains in fairly good shape. Within its pages we found a snapshot of Front Range folk music in the early months of 1966.

In telling the story of Judy’s career to that point, the program takes her from singing at the Lemmon Lodge in Grand Lake, Colorado, in 1957, to the height of pop and folk music stardom throughout the early 1960s. After performing for President Kennedy, appearing on Hootenanny” and at Carnegie Hall, with her 1966 Denver performance, the program boasts, “At last, Judy is returning home.”

Beyond Judy, current Swallow Hill members will recognize business names like The Denver Folklore Center, and performers such as Walt Conley and Odetta.

Advertisements within the program for two, (then) upcoming shows also caught our eye.

The first is an illustration of legendary Delta Blues Musician Skip James. Billed as the “Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers,” Skip was scheduled to play the I.B.E.W. Hall at 17th and Emerson on February 10 that year.

Then, an ad for “Bob Dylan in Concert” on March 13 at the City Auditorium Arena. The ad feature a photo of Bob, guitar in hand, harmonica at his lips and mic at the ready.

Bob’s Denver appearance is noteworthy in part because while in town for the concert, he jammed with Robbie Robertson in a hotel room. Recordings of the jam session, though a bit rough, survive. You can find more information about the recordings here.

We hope to get high-resolution scans of the program made in the near future to put on display at Swallow Hill. In the meantime, we are sharing images of each page of the program for your enjoyment. You can find them below.