ODETTA - The female Leadbelly

Well I just had to write this post.

Odetta Gordon, born 31 December 1930 at Birmingham, Alabama. Also known as Odetta Holmes, and besides is also known with her stepfather's surname as Odetta Felious, is an African-American singer.

Odetta was born in Alabama and grew up in Los Angeles. She was training for a classical and operatic career until a visit to a San Francisco Bay coffee house featuring folk music awakened her interest. Pete Seeger once said, "The first time I heard Odetta sing ... she sang "Take This Hammer" and I went and told her how I wish Leadbelly was still alive so he could have heard her."

Folk singer and guitarist Odetta turned 75 this last New Year's Eve, and there's a 51 year span between her first album from 1954, and her latest, Gonna Let It Shine, released a few months ago. In those five decades, she's blown minds with her powerful voice and influenced many notables in the folk music business, including Joan Baez and Bob Dylan; Odetta gave Dylan encouragement early in his career (before he was in NYC), and her album Sings Ballads and Blues inspired him to switch from an electric to an acoustic guitar.

Odetta was known as the "female Leadbelly".

Just listen to her "Gallows Pole". This is from her 1957 album At the Gate of Horn, which demonstrates her impressive guitar chops. The person playing bass on that song is Bill Lee.

Divine.