Died On This Date (December 2, 2008) Odetta / Folk and Blues Icon
themusicsover Odetta Holmes
December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008
Odetta Holmes was a politically charged folk, blues and gospel singer-songwriter and activist who has been called “the voice of the civil rights movement.” Most prominent during the folk movement of the ’60s, Odetta was not only a peer, but an influence on such folk greats as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte. She was born in Birmingham, AL but raised in Los Angeles where she studied music and received opera singing lessons as a young teen. After taking a stab at musical theater, she turned her focus to folk singing in 1950 and set out across America to sing at all the usual suspect folk clubs and gatherings. She began releasing albums in 1954, and over the course of her career, recorded for such highly regarded labels as Fantasy, Folkways, RCA Victor, and Vanguard Records who continue to keep her legacy alive thanks to the tireless work of Morgana Kennedy, Dan Sell and Stephen Brower. In September of 1999, President Bill Clinton presented Odetta with the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Medal of Arts, the highest honor presented to an artist on behalf of the American people. Odetta stayed active as a performer and activist up until her final days. In 2008, she embarked on what would be her final tour of North America at the age of 77. Odetta ill in late 2008 and though planning to perform at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009, she died of heart disease on December 2, 2008.
Thanks to Craig Rosen of Number1Albums for the assist.
What You Should Own
Although he was small in stature, picked the guitar lightly, and sang almost in a whisper, Mississippi John Hurt’s influence on folk and blues was huge. He learned to play the guitar before he was ten, and by the early 1920s, he had already been playing in front of crowds at local barn dances. In 1928, and on the recommendation of a friend who had recently won an Okeh Records contract in a talent contest, Hurt was asked to audition for the label. He was signed that same year and given two recording sessions that produced collection of sides that sadly, never had a chance to develop since Okeh soon went under due to the Great Depression. Hurt soon retired from the music business and went back to his life as a sharecropper. Fast forward about 35 years to 1963. The folk revival was in full swing when music historian, Tom Hoskins heard those old recordings and sought out to find Hurt. He tracked him down still living in Avalon, Mississippi and convinced him to move to Washington DC and relaunch his music career. Hurt’s set at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was that of legend, and he was subsequently signed to legendary folk label, Vanguard Records. He went on to tour the country and even perform on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Hurt’s music influenced a new generation of singer-songwriters from blues to country to folk. Mississippi John Hurt died of a heart attack on November 2, 1966. In 2001, Morgana Kennedy and the folks at Vanguard records released Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt. It contained versions of John Hurt songs by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Ben Harper, Beck and John Hiatt.