AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Odetta

Artist:Odetta

Song:He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Album:Best of the Vanguard Years

Odetta Holmes was a big part of the 60s folk music boom. She was called The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Among her biggest fans were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Though she never had a hit single, her 60s albums on Vanguard and RCA were very consistent sellers. She was born Dec. 31, 1930 in Birmingham, AL. Her father died when she was young. And she moved to Los Angeles with her mother in 1937. One of Odetta's teachers told her mother that she has a good voice and maybe should study music. She started studying at age 13. And after graduating from high school, she studied music at Los Angeles City College. She worked as a maid to pay for that. Odetta's mom was hoping she could be a big opera star like Marian Anderson. Odetta had her doubts so in 1944, she took a job at the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre. So I guess Odetta was thinking she might make it on Broadway. She joined the national touring company of the musical Finian's Rainbow in 1949. While on tour, she got into folk music in San Francisco. She started performing at local clubs like the hungry i. She formed a duo with Larry Mohr and they recorded a 1954 album at San Francisco's Tin Angel nightclub. They performed mostly traditional folk songs. Odetta went solo after that and signed with Vanguard Records in 1959. Vanguard was a folk music specialty label at the time. Harry Belafonte heard Odetta and they appeared in a 1959 TV special. Plus he got her a record deal on RCA. So he really helped her and in 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called her The Queen of American Folk Music. And she appeared at the 1964 Washington Civil Rights march. Odetta recorded the traditional spiritual He's Got the World in His Hands on the 1962 album Odetta at Town Hall. She performed a mix of folk, blues and spirituals accompanied by jazz bassist Bill Lee. That's right. He's Spike Lee's father. Lee was mainly a session musician. He worked with other folk music artists like Bob Dylan and Judy Collins. This comp is a good intro to Odetta's Vanguard recordings. I may look at her RCA recordings in the future. When folk music was replaced by psychedelia in the late 60s, she didn't adjust her style and stopped recording. She still toured and appeared on TV. But with the end of folk music, Odetta immediately became a nostalgia act. She continued to tour until 2008 and died on Dec. 2, 2008 at age 77. Here's Odetta performing He's Got the Whole World in His Hands in Germany 1993.