Odetta – Best of the Vanguard Years CD

Best of the Vanguard Years is a folk compilation by Odetta on Vanguard Records. This is the CD edition. This edition was released on January 26, 1999.

Odetta's recordings for Vanguard are among her best, and this CD offers a healthy 21-track dose, including three unreleased tracks! Includes No More Auction Block for Me and Battle Hymn of the Republic from her Carnegie Hall performances; Southern work songs like Cotton Fields and If I Had a Hammer, and gospel favorites like Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho. Bill Lee (father of Spike Lee) accompanies on bass. Odetta is one of the last American folk singers with ties to the authentic folk tradition. Mentored in the early '50s by Woody Guthrie cronies Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Pete Seeger (whose "If I Had a Hammer" is covered here in a strangely unmelodic manner), as well as Harry Belafonte, Odetta is easily identified by her husky voice--a strong influence on both Joan Armatrading and Tracy Chapman. While with Vanguard, she made a spiritual claim to tunes already associated with Leadbelly ("Midnight Special," "Cotton Fields"), not to mention slave spirituals, pop gospel ("He's Got The Whole World"), and even "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Classic rock fans will recognize "Down on Me," which was later electrified by Janis Joplin. The best tracks here, however, are the four unreleased gems that close the CD, running from terrific jazzy blues and R&B (including the great standard "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out") to her take on "House of the Risin' Sun." --Bill Holdship