SONG OF THE DAY ... at age 78, Odetta sings. Its her birthday, and The Writers Almanac says: Its the birthday of the woman Martin Luther King Jr. called The Queen of American Folk Music: Odetta, born Odetta Holmes Felious, in Birmingham, Alabama (1930). She thought at first that shed be an opera singer, but she heard folk music in San Francisco and decided that was the kind of music that said what she wanted to say. In a 1966 Playboy magazine interview, Bob Dylan said: The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. That was in 58 or something like that. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. Odettas albums include My Eyes Have Seen (1959), Sometimes I Feel Like Crying (1962), and Movin It On (1987). A reviewer once said: Odetta cant sing folk at all, because she doesnt really sound like a person singing, let alone like the person next door singing. She sounds more like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. https://youtube/watch?v=oGieUYI9ZGw&index=29&list=RDL_a8_6yPMkE
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:11:52 +0000
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