The Best of the Vanguard Years [PA]

Performer: Odetta
Producer: Tom Vickers
Distributor: Welk

Notes: Personnel includes: Odetta (vocals, guitar); Bill Lee (acoustic bass). Recorded in New York, New York and live at Carnegie Hall, New York, New York in 1963. Includes liner notes by Samuel Charters. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Odetta began recording in the mid-'50s but her best known work (and easiest to find) is from her early-'60s stay with Vanguard Records, the period that this introductory compilation is drawn from, and these clear, uncluttered and focused tracks make a fine introduction to this dedicated singer. Odetta, like so many other great American singers, discovered her voice in church, but she also has a background in theater, so when the folk revival hit with commercial force in the '60s, she knew exactly how to present her traditional material in concert for the greatest dramatic effect, a trait that made her a striking figure on the scene. These recordings brim with sincerity and power and underscore the fact that Odetta, much like Harry Belafonte before her, works the artful end of folk song, interpreting to theatric taste rather than reproducing a facsimile of the source material. She remains a riveting and intellectually fulfilling performer, all of which comes through in this anthology. ~ Steve Leggett

Dirty Linen (6-7/99, p.68) - "...spellbinding and powerful. Odetta delivers, and her soul-searching renditions of classic work songs haven't lost their shine..."

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.

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