New Vinyl
888072455191
Vinyl Me, Please Classics
A1 Hard, Oh Lord
A2 Believe Ill Go
A3 Oh, Papa
A4 How Long Blues
A5 Hogans Alley
A6 Leavin This Mornin
B1 Oh, My Babe
B2 Yonder Come The Blues
B3 Make Me A Pallet On The Floor
B4 Weeping Willow Blues
B5 Go Down Sunshine
B6 Nobody Knows When Youre Down And Out
The songs that populateOdetta and the Bluesare 1920s blues and jazz standards sung by the likes of Bessie Smith, Gertrude Ma Rainey, Mississippi John Hurt, Leroy Carr and other titans of the time and genre. Most are traditional, unattributable to any one songwriter but all are linked to Black musicians. In this way, the album feels like an important (and understandable) aspect of Odettas quest to show America the myriad ways this countrys music wouldnt be what it is without Black Americans.
Odetta makes each track sound timeless and true, but also utterly, entirely her own. I think thats the hallmark of a true and truly unique talent and a sign that the artist in question understands the assignment, as it were: to find the throughlines between their perspective and the art itself; to preserve the original message and add one of your own, like a constructive game of Telephone. Theres an art to being a cover artist and an art to being an archivist.
