Today was the first day I really listened to Odetta, I admit. It is a rare case of a recording that I have to have put in place from a historical perspective before I can fully appreciate it. I tried listening a ways back, when I was coursing through 1000 Recordings' gospel and blues, and turned away after the first few tracks on the record. This time, with Odetta's passage, I stuck with the record. It seemed to me that the first few tracks are more formally presented -- measured, studio-centric, calm and frankly unthreatening. It's almost as if she's establishing her credentials, setting herself apart specifically and carefully from "race music." Or, if not setting herself apart from it, providing the proof that her interpretation of music is mature and not to be seen as sloppy or unschooled.
Just a few tracks in, though, "Another Man Done Gone" shares the tune and unsettling, searching rhythm with "Baby Please Don't Go," the spectacularly popular song that John Lee Hooker ultimately established in the public consciousness. She claps solidly and bravely. It's clear she's drawing on folk tradition. By the time she's jubilantly strummed her fierce way through the record to "God's Gonna Cut You Down," which I knew only from Moby's version, she's letting her passion show through into her voice, and she's established her formal mastery of the folk form. That track, as the first track, would have created a much looser record, much more frightening for a traditionalist used to conventional music.
Placing this in the context of the civil rights movement makes perfect sense. Now I understand her power: A crossover artist with what was, then, largely unprecedented social impact.
