Video: Odetta Live in concert 2005, "House of the Rising Sun"

There are a lot of recorded versions of this tune. Lots of people associate it with the "hit" version by The Animals, but this tune, also called Rising Sun Blues, was around in one form or another for a long time before the Animals found it. Here's Leadbelly And Odetta

Odetta Memorial Service Riverside Memorial Church Tuesday, February 24 "Odetta all by herself was a stimulus package," declared Reverend James Forbes, senior minister emeritus of the gorgeous, cav... Continue reading "Live: The Buoyant, Epic Odetta Memorial" >

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Grace and Sparky at The Newport Folk Festival watching Odetta perform. Grace was a huge fan. Photo Credit: TedHeadOne Excellent video here .

Odetta, RIP Odetta , the classically trained folk, blues and gospel singer who used her powerfully rich and dusky voice to champion African American music and civil rights issues for more than half a century starting in the folk revival of the 1950s, has died. She was 77. She was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City for a checkup in mid-November but went into kidney failure. She died there Tuesday of heart disease, her manager, Doug Yeager, told the Associated Press. [...]

She influenced Bob Dylan , Joan Baez and Janis Joplin . She was a folk pioneer. She is undoubtedly responsible for so many of the sounds we hear in popular music today. Her name is Odetta ; the legendary singer died yesterday at age 77. Despite battling heart disease and failing health, Odetta never stopped rocking, performing 60 concerts in the last two years that featured 90-minute sets of solid singing. Odetta rose to prominence in the 1950s. Active in the civil rights [...]

MUSIC NEWS - Sad news from NYC, Odetta , the American folk singer with a deep voice that tied together the powerful songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday (12/2/08) at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 77. The cause was heart disease, said her manager, Doug Yeager. Three weeks ago she was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure, he said. In spite of failing health that caused her to use a wheelchair, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years, singing for 90 minutes at a time. Her singing ability [...]