- At the Gate of Horn · 1956
- Odetta Sings · 1970
- Odetta Sings Dylan · 1965
- Best of the Vanguard Years · 1963
- Songs of Freedom - This Land Is Your Land · 1999
- Odetta Sings Folk Songs · 1963
- It's a Mighty World · 1964
- It's Impossible (Live) · 1976
- Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall (Live) · 1960
- Odetta Sings Dylan · 1965
- Odetta Sings Folk Songs · 1963
- It's a Mighty World · 1964
- At the Gate of Horn · 1956
Essential Albums
- Released in 1956, Odetta’s debut album heralded both the folk boom of the ‘60s and the early stirrings of the civil rights movement. Beyond its place in history, this album remains a work of uncommon emotional and artistic power. Odetta’s astoundingly deep voice and dramatic phrasing owes as much to the operatic style of Paul Robeson as it does to the raw blues of Leadbelly. Her renditions of “Deep Blue Sea” and “’Buked and Scorned” are at once stately and shiver inducing. Odetta puts aside her theatrical training to deliver tunes like “Another Man Done Gone” and “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” with a raw, wailing fervor. Whether she’s essaying a Western folk ballad like “Santy Anno” or catching the lilt of Caribbean music in “Shame and Scandal,” she treats her material with respect and insight. Most of all, it’s the sound of her singing that’s inescapably moving, especially when she interprets African-American spirituals like “Glory, Glory” and “Oh Freedom.” Sings Ballads and Blues went on to influence a generation of folk artists and to inspire those who fought for equality in the South and beyond. The album’s prophetic message still resonates a half-century on.
- 1970
Artist Playlists
- Her biggest fan was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Need we say more?
Live Albums
- 2011
Compilations
About Odetta
Taking inspiration from classic blues singers and folk troubadours of the 1930s and '40s and predating the folk boom of the '60s, Odetta remains one of the most important yet often overlooked artists of the American musical tradition. Her unique, politically charged fusion of blues, traditional Negro spirituals, and American folk songs was a profound influence on a generation of artists from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to Tracy Chapman. Odetta continued to perform well after her heyday, remaining both fiercely political and artistically engaging.
- HOMETOWN
- Birmingham, AL, United States
- BORN
- December 31, 1930
- GENRE
- Singer/Songwriter