Acknowledgments

I am indebted to John Glusman, my brilliant editor at Crown Archetype, who has been inspiring, patient, and wonderfully insightful. He has brought Sweet Judy Blue Eyes to fruition, talking me through the most difficult places, seeing around corners that I couldn’t see, and finding a way to keep the goal in sight; he has waved his incredible magic editing wand over the text, getting the arc of the story just right, bringing it all back to the music, where it belongs. Thank you, John, for all the care and time you have put into bringing Sweet Judy Blue Eyes home, and for your love of the songs and the people in the book. You have made all the difference.

I am very grateful to Shaye Areheart, who saw what this book could be and had faith in the story I wanted to tell. You have been a part of Sweet Judy Blue Eyes from the first, and I thank you.

Thanks to my agent, Susan Raihofer, who has been enthusiastic all along about Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, even when I wavered. Your belief helped me take the book in the direction it had to go, and it gave me courage all the way along, with your enthusiasm and your fine editing of the original material, and your ability to laugh! That laughter did a lot to ease the occasional frustrations that are bound to arise when you are working on a project for many years!

David Sobel was upbeat, cheerful, and professional during many months over many long distances as I toured in the United States and overseas and we worked together on the first drafts of Sweet Judy Blue Eyes. Thank you for introducing me to digital editing; I will never go any other way!

Thanks to Tina Constable, the publisher of Crown Archetype. You rock in the publishing world, doing it the old-fashioned way, with care and attention and commitment. Thank you!

Thanks to Domenica Alioto for all your help with the photos as well as all the important details that have gone into bringing this book to publication.

Thanks to Mary Choteborsky, for all your help.

Thanks to Barbara Sturman for the lovely inner book design, and for finding me the most elegant of dingbats!

In the years I have spent writing this memoir, I have reached out to many people I had not seen or spoken to for years, as well as many friends with whom I have been in close touch over the decades. Friendships have been renewed and refreshed and, in some cases, brought to a new level of intimacy.

My thanks to Fred Weintraub for your humor and stories about the many people we both knew in the old days, some who are gone and some who are still here. And, as we found each other again, after forty-five years, thanks for welcoming Louis and me into your home and letting us get to know you and your wonderful wife, Jackie. I treasure the renewal of an old and trusted companion on this social and musical journey.

Special thanks to Loretta Barrett, for always being there.

Jac Holzman has been so much a part of my life for fifty years, and I thank him for his constancy and for providing a model of professional and personal integrity that has made all the difference in my recording life as well as in my understanding of friendship. You were amazing, and still are.

Thanks to my family—to my mother, Marjorie, and father, Chuck; to my son, Clark: gone but never forgotten. And to my sister, Holly Ann; my brothers Denver John, David, and Michael; as well as my granddaughter, Hollis.

Thanks to my friends, who love and support me in the dark as well as the bright places on the journey.

My gratitude and thanks to Katherine De Paul, who has run my business, making it all look easy, for nearly seventeen years now. Your support and professionalism is a guide and an assurance that all will be done with care and attention to detail. You amaze me every day with your ability to wear many hats and be exceptionally effective in each and every one. I salute you as the “major doma” who keeps all the wheels oiled in this career I have always called a circus. You are amazing

Additional thanks to Lorna Owen, Alan Silverman, Arif Mardin, Russ Walden, George Williamson, John Haeny, Susan Cheever, Scott Bercu, Peter Shukat, Jonas Herbsman, Lisa Napfel, Ken Waissman, Emily Goldstein, Gloria Grossman, John Smith, Erica Jong, Julia Cameron, Emma Lively, Murial Lloyd, Ron Gallen, Maria, Robert Hall and the Hall Family, Jane Cecil, Barbara Quinn, Doris Dallow, Penny Schwartz, Suzanne Seeley, Molly Jong Fast, Pia Lindstrom, David Braun, Eugene Kokot, Scott Morris, Kenny Di Camilla, Charlie Rothschild, Jerry Mundis, Peter Yarrow, Charles Nurnberg, Jeremy Nurnberg, Charles Koppleman, Gary Klein, Josh Rifkin, Danny Fields, Rachmaninoff, Coco Chanel, and Tom Wolfe.

And thanks to my audiences over all of these more than fifty years. You have bought my records and CDs, come to my shows, written letters to me, and lifted me from the sometimes grueling effects of travel into the warmth of your appreciation. You give me wings.

Always, I thank my beloved husband and partner of thirty-three years, Louis Nelson. You are my special angel, sent by the spirits that guide me. I am grateful for all the years we have had together, and for your understanding and humor, your generosity in sharing me with the public, and your letting the past be a part of our present, at least some of the time.

I love you.