Odetta and the blues

Highly influential and respected, Odetta Holmes (1930-2008) was one of the first female singers to forge the bond between traditional folk music and more contemporary forms. Although she is an American folk icon who made her mark during the revival of the genre in the late Fifties and early Sixties, her music and her style also included elements of the blues, jazz, spirituals, as well as Appalachian and English traditional songs. This LP edition includes one of Odetta's finest but most overlooked albums, the excellent Odetta and the Blues - originally released by Riverside in 1962, and long unavailable. It's another of her most interesting deviations from straight folk, and one that originally caused a bit of contention among her more conservative contemporaries.