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- Iconic '70s Singer, Who Took 38-Year Break From Music, Turns 90</p>
<p>Nina DerwinJuly 9, 2025 at 5:41 AM</p>
<p>Photo by Brian Shuel/Redferns</p>
<p>Iconic '70s Singer, Who Took 38-Year Break From Music, Turns 90 originally appeared on Parade.</p>
<p>It's never too late for your second act to begin— just ask Shirley Collins.</p>
<p>The legendary folk singer turned 90 on July 5, and she celebrated by releasing a remixed, sped-up version of "Hares On the Mountain," a traditional English folk song that she's recorded several times throughout her storied career.</p>
<p>While most nonagenarians are winding down, it seems that Collins is in the midst of her musical prime. But, it didn't come easy. Collins spent nearly 40 years out of the spotlight, having lost her voice at what then seemed to be the peak of her career.</p>
<p>In a 2023 interview for The Guardian, Collins recounted the events that lead to her decades-long hiatus from music.</p>
<p>"I was working at the National Theatre [in the late 70s] with my then husband and he fell in love with first one, then another, actress, then he left me," she said. "One of them would stand right in front of me wearing his jumper while I was singing, which undermined my confidence so much that, eventually, nothing would come out of my mouth. I couldn't sing for 38 years."</p>
<p>And then one day, as if out of the blue, her voice returned. She wasted no time getting back into the studio after so many years working at various stores to support herself and her children in the aftermath of her divorce. But for Collins, hard work and regular jobs weren't the most difficult parts of her journey.</p>
<p>"The worst thing was, I was not only doing a disservice to myself," she told NPR in 2016. "I was doing a disservice to the songs. And that I couldn't bear."</p>
<p>It was that same year she released her first album in 38 years, Lodestar, a folk/country masterpiece that was well worth the wait. As Louis Pattison so eloquently wrote for Pitchfork, "That Lodestar exists at all feels like a minor miracle. That it is so exquisitely done is a small blessing on top."</p>
<p>Collins followed up her triumphant return to the music scene with two more records— Heart's Ease in 2020 and Archangel Hill in 2023.</p>
<p>Shirley Collins got her start making folk music alongside her sister, Dolly Collins, in the late 1950s. The duo recorded music together for the better part of the next two decades, releasing their final album, For As Many As Will, in 1978.</p>
<p>Dolly Collins passed away in 1995 at the age of 62, never having had the chance to see her sister find her voice once again. At 90, Shirley Collins is living fearlessly for both of them.</p>
<p>Iconic '70s Singer, Who Took 38-Year Break From Music, Turns 90 first appeared on Parade on Jul 9, 2025</p>
<p>This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 9, 2025, where it first appeared.</p>
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