Odetta: At the Gate of Horn

I must have heard of Odetta earlier, but the first time her name really registered with me was when she sang on The 6ths' album Hyacinths and Thistles. Stephin Merritt, who writes the 6ths' songs, is quoted saying, "I think I actually cried at the recording session because it was so unexpectedly beautiful. Hearing Odetta sing my song for the first time was like hearing an orchestra play my symphony for the first time, I imagine… No one has ever taken a song of mine and catapulted it into the stratosphere like Odetta."

I bought this album a month after seeing Odetta play at the Crossing Border festival in Amsterdam, November 2002, 45 years after this album was recorded. This year's Crossing Border starts tomorrow, and as always the music programme is pretty good, but it moved to The Hague three years ago, and, well, The Hague isn't the same as Amsterdam. Tim and I went there twice (we saw Low there for the first time in 2000), and enjoyed much of what Amsterdam has to offer, including good floatation tanks, each time. Odetta was over 70 when we saw her that time, still in great voice, but physically quite frail and no longer playing guitar. She was accompanied just by a piano. I don't remember many of the details of the set list, but I know it featured a few Leadbelly songs, including Midnight Special, which is also on this album — with Odetta's guitar accompanied by Bill (father of Spike) Lee on stand-up bass.

The CD booklet includes Odetta's original sleevenotes, with such details as how she discovered songs like He's Got the Whole World in his Hands as part of a folk collection — obviously some years before it became a ubiquitous advertising jingle.

MusicBrainz entry for this album