Tell me everything you know about Odetta

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actually not that much. i've never listened to her but see her records around for more than a few bucks and am curious. she good? she like anyone in particular? any records i should search out?

― jaxon, Saturday, 14 April 2007 01:49 (eighteen years ago)

i think she's sorta, um, good for you. like broccoli. it's not like you are gonna hear people put her down or whatever. i just think she's a little boring. i'd rather listen to sweet honey in the rock, lets put it that way. and i never listen to sweet honey in the rock. i do own ten (or more) buffy st. marie albums though. and there are probably people who feel the same way about her. maybe. though i can't see how, she was such a weirdo.

― scott seward, Saturday, 14 April 2007 02:03 (eighteen years ago)

I love her Dylan covers album.

― el juan, Saturday, 14 April 2007 10:16 (eighteen years ago)

"The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers [Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues] in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. ... [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record. It was her first and the songs were- 'Mule Skinner', 'Waterboy', 'Jack of Diamonds', ''Buked and Scorned'." - Bob Dylan

― el juan, Saturday, 14 April 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

I particularly love her cover of Masters of War. Her voice just has this matronly command which is buoyed up by an almost kraut-ey guitar figure. Its truly great.

― I know, right?, Saturday, 14 April 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

She's a lot younger than I thought. I'd been under the impression that she was in her 50s or 60s back when Dylan first heard her.

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 14 April 2007 14:56 (eighteen years ago)

based on a free outdoor concert of hers that i caught circa 1990, i'd have to agree with scott. lots of self-righteous banter between songs too. but i'm sure she has some good stuff in her catalog.

― gershy, Saturday, 14 April 2007 15:17 (eighteen years ago)

maybe "stodgy" was the word i was looking for? i understand that she was inspirational to a lot of people. martin luther king was a big fan. to be critical of her is kinda like being critical of a monument or something. she's a little like black history month. she has a BIG voice and i like big voices. i'm a mahalia jackson fan. i'm a paul robeson fan. and a marian anderson fan. i've got no beef with sainted icons. i saw odetta once at the 25th anniversary of folk city. everyone was very reverent in the audience. i snoozed.

― scott seward, Saturday, 14 April 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

eh, so i just downloaded and listened to the Dylan covers album and i'm kinda w/scott. not much of a fan. i really dug Masters of War, but the rest left me cold. i'm not the hugest fan of 60s folk, so maybe i need something of hers from the 70s? except it doesn't look like she made anything? oh well.

― jaxon, Saturday, 14 April 2007 20:32 (eighteen years ago)

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/old-ft/nylpm/2005/09/folk-rescue-work/

― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 15 April 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

she's seriously ill with kidney failure in a New York hospital:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/11/from-birmingham.html

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 21 November 2008 17:54 (sixteen years ago)

This is sad. One time I was walking past the Old Town School of Folk Music and saw her warming up for a gig, sitting in front of the window. Even just practicing she was a total powerhouse.

I hope she makes it to the inauguration and sings Bourgeois Blues.

― dad a, Friday, 21 November 2008 18:00 (sixteen years ago)

her performance from the 60s in that scorsese dylan doc is like a force of nature. I think she does "waterboy"?

― Edward III, Friday, 21 November 2008 18:05 (sixteen years ago)

Stephin Merritt said about her rendition of "Waltzing Me All The Way Home" on the second 6ths record: "I think I actually cried at the recording session because it was so unexpectedly beautiful. Hearing Odetta sing my song for the first time was like hearing an orchestra play my symphony for the first time, I imagine… No one has ever taken a song of mine and catapulted it into the stratosphere like Odetta."

― dad a, Friday, 21 November 2008 18:39 (sixteen years ago)

RIP

― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 05:09 (sixteen years ago)

NY Times story.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 07:06 (sixteen years ago)

This is also good: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/02/arts/music/1194832844841/last-word-odetta.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 08:38 (sixteen years ago)

Aw Hell, her version of Masters of War is one of the most spine tingling, It's surprising she was only 77, she seems like a figure of a much older time, like in old footage of the 60's she seems like a representative of an archaic world. There's about ten songs of hers I'll be forever grateful for, Rest In Peace.

― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 09:24 (sixteen years ago)

She had completely passed me by, until that knockout performance on the Scorsese Dylan doc. Love her Dylan covers album; I've always had "personal issues" with BD's voice, so it was great to hear Odetta making some of those songs come alive for me. RIP indeed.

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 10:35 (sixteen years ago)

rip

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 13:55 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/12/singer-and-civi.html

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:34 (sixteen years ago)

RIP

― Edward III, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:35 (sixteen years ago)

maybe some nice person will put this out on DVD now

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136508/

― Edward III, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:36 (sixteen years ago)

RIP.

― dad a, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:39 (sixteen years ago)

midnight special

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 16:36 (sixteen years ago)

i am so fortunate to have seen her this past summer at the sf bluegrass festival, she was pretty striking.

RIP

― psychgawsple, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 18:54 (sixteen years ago)

aw man RIP

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 18:56 (sixteen years ago)

two months pass...

ODETTA DOC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hd376/Odetta_Remembers/

― yungblut, Monday, 9 February 2009 21:31 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

so, i saw her Oberlin right before she died in 2008, and it was amazing. i am listening to a mixtape i made for someone (yeah this still happens) and i put "sail way ladies" on it, and i was like, 'forgot i put this song on, but damn, this is only an A- in odetta terms.

― Honey, I squirted jizz all over the baby (the table is the table), Friday, 12 November 2010 07:15 (fourteen years ago)

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