Odetta | Artist
Odetta Holmes was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and a civil and human rights activist, born 1930 in Birmingham Alabama. She is often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" and she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples and Janis Joplin. Time magazine included her recording of "Take This Hammer" on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that "Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music." As a child she had a fine voice and began operatic training at the age of thirteen. After attending High School she studied music at Los Angeles City College, supporting herself as a domestic worker. After touring with a musical theatre ensemble she fell in with a group of young balladeers in San Francisco and after 1950 concentrated on folk singing. With her musical repertoire expanding to American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals she quickly made her name playing at the Blue Angel nightclub in New York City and the Hungry I in San Francisco. Her first recording was the 1954 duet Odetta and Larry, with Larry Mohr, followed by a string of superb solo albums including Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues (1957), At the Gate of Horn (1957), and Odetta Sings Folk Songs, which was one of the best-selling folk albums of 1963. Her career really ht the spotlight in 1959 when she appeared on Tonight with Belafonte, a nationally televised special, singing "Water Boy" and a duet with Belafonte, "There's a Hole in my Bucket". Other standout albums include My Eyes Have Seen, Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin' and Odetta Sings. On September 29, 1999, President Bill Clinton presented Odetta with the National Medal of Arts, and in 2004, Odetta was honoured at the Kennedy Centre with the "Visionary Award" along with a tribute performance by Tracy Chapman. In 2005, the US Library of Congress honoured her with its "Living Legend Award". Odetta died in 2008 aged 77.
Artist Website: odettamusic.com
Featured Albums: Odetta
Related Artists: Odetta Holmes, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger
Video Clips: Livin' With the Blues, TV Concert '64, House of the Rising Sun
