Odetta - At Carnegie Hall (1960)

Odetta at Carnegie Hall is a live album by American folk singer Odetta, recorded on April 8, 1960 and released later that year. It is now out of print.

This is a good, straightforward recording of Odetta's Carnegie Hall concert, which featured support from Bill Lee on string bass. (Incidentally, Lee - father of Spike Lee - is surely one of the unheralded heroes of the 1960s folk revival, contributing session work to many recordings and helping to expand the parameters of folk's sound from basic solo acoustic guitar accompaniment.).

She's joined on the last four numbers by the Choir of the Church of the Master. While it's not certain that Odetta's versions of "If I Had a Hammer," "John Riley," "John Henry," and "No More Auction Block" (all done here) were the most influential of the folk revival, certainly she was an important popularizer of these and similar songs.


Odetta - At Carnagie Hall (1960)
(192 kbps, front cover included)