Odetta at the 2001 Thirsty Ear Festival.
Photo by Jennifer Esperanza.
Queen of American folk music
ODETTA
May 24, 2006 — 7:30pm
St. Francis Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe
$29 advance or $33 door. General Admission.
$25 for SW Roots Music Members.
Tickets at Lensic Box Office — 505-988-1234
In 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. dubbed her "the queen of American folk music." A few months before, Odetta had recorded the live album We Shall Overcome from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The Grammy-winning folk record featured Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Dr. King himself. The next year she would march with King from Selma to Montgomery. For decades, in fact, Odetta has been at the forefront of the fight for justice and equal rights in America. And her greatest weapon has always been her powerful voice.
Born Odetta Gordon in 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Los Angeles, Odetta studied classical voice as a child in the hope of becoming an opera star. But after a realistic appraisal of racism in America, she chucked classical for folk. First thing she did when she landed on the folk scene was leaflet for the Rosenbergs. Paul Robeson took her under his wing. "My education on several levels started with my getting into folk music," she says. "I started learning history that we were not being taught in school. The 'heroes' that we learned about in school were the ones who garnered money for themselves and had their boots on our necks."
When she hit San Francisco in 1953 for a residency at the Tin Angel, Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte were waiting for her. By the '60s she was a folk fixture on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan, who sites her as a major influence, sang nothing but Odetta songs for months after hearing her first recording in the early 1960s. She has continued to tour worldwide and, in 1999, she was awarded a National Medal of the Arts. For the past few years she has been dedicated almost exclusively to blues and spirituals, as is evident on a trio of recent critically acclaimed CDs on MC Records. She says singing the blues gives her a chance to refute African-American stereotypes and pay tribute to an era she reveres. "There were blues songs [in the '20s and '30s] that had to do with everyday living. I dare you to find a blues song today that doesn't have to do with the pelvis area or 'I'm gonna shoot you'." Odetta's blues focus on poverty, workingman's problems, racism, and the tireless strength of women.
We are proud to welcome back an old friend.
Odetta will also be playing at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque on May 25 & 26. Call 505-268-4481 for more info.
Born Odetta Gordon in 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Los Angeles, Odetta studied classical voice as a child in the hope of becoming an opera star. But after a realistic appraisal of racism in America, she chucked classical for folk. First thing she did when she landed on the folk scene was leaflet for the Rosenbergs. Paul Robeson took her under his wing. "My education on several levels started with my getting into folk music," she says. "I started learning history that we were not being taught in school. The 'heroes' that we learned about in school were the ones who garnered money for themselves and had their boots on our necks."
When she hit San Francisco in 1953 for a residency at the Tin Angel, Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte were waiting for her. By the '60s she was a folk fixture on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan, who sites her as a major influence, sang nothing but Odetta songs for months after hearing her first recording in the early 1960s. She has continued to tour worldwide and, in 1999, she was awarded a National Medal of the Arts. For the past few years she has been dedicated almost exclusively to blues and spirituals, as is evident on a trio of recent critically acclaimed CDs on MC Records. She says singing the blues gives her a chance to refute African-American stereotypes and pay tribute to an era she reveres. "There were blues songs [in the '20s and '30s] that had to do with everyday living. I dare you to find a blues song today that doesn't have to do with the pelvis area or 'I'm gonna shoot you'." Odetta's blues focus on poverty, workingman's problems, racism, and the tireless strength of women.
We are proud to welcome back an old friend.
Odetta will also be playing at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque on May 25 & 26. Call 505-268-4481 for more info.
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