Customer Reviews

Looking for a Home

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Her blues album in 99 was a good comeback and is a fine CD; you can play it while you do other things, or you can sit down and enter into it with her. But if you put this CD on, forget about anything else. It will knock your breath out, knock you to your knees, whap you upside the head, make you laugh, make you cry, and demand 100% of your attention. Most singers quit before they reach 73. Odetta has just reached the height of her power. When she was in her forties and fifties, she was merely the strongest voice in the world; now she has achieved what the Japanese call YUGEN: maturity, the full flower perfected, the absolute mastery of one who has carried greatness in her bones and has practiced her art for about fifty years. She wails, moans, laughs, rocks, and quavers. She's sexy and compelling. Her timing is genius. Her pauses are rapt, wrenching. And her passion is infectious. "In the Pines" is so far down, it makes all our lives feel up; when she confides, "I love Irene, God knows I do," it's like a sacred trust. And when she belts out the boll weevil song, you can't help laughing out loud. If you only buy one Odetta CD in your life, buy this one. If you're an Odetta fan, you probably already did, but if you didn't, get ready. Fasten your seatbelts. She enters a whole new dimension on this CD, and she'll take you with her, if you have the soul for it.

Odetta has created a fantastic album of songs by the famous Leadbelly. Pete Seeger is quoted on the back stating that he first heard Odetta sing a song by C.W. Leadbetter and he has waited 50 years for her to do an album of his songs. He is thrilled with this album and so am I. Odetta has improved with age. Her voice is brilliant in delivering her unique renditions of these songs. She has lost none of her vocal strength; on the contrary, I prefer her recent works over her Vanguard albums. She has a back-up band and like her previous release on MC Records, "Blues Everywhere I Go", there is a feeling of intimacy as if one is there in person hearing this great artist. I recommend this album without a bit of hesitation. I have asked independently run CD shops to carry this album and "Blues Everywhere I Go". Odetta is truly an American Treasure and I hope there will be more albums of this caliber from her. She is better than she has ever been and that is quite a feat for an artist who is, and always has been, brilliant. This is an album to really sit and listen to and it leaves the listener wanting more. "Looking For A Home" is a true work of art due to the genius of Odetta. This is a must have for anyone who loves folk/blues music. Thank You, Thank You, Odetta!!!

Odetta has been known as the "Female Leadbelly" for her frequent interpretations of his songs. This CD finds her doing a collection of Leadbelly's songs that come straight out of her heart. The performances are emotional and evocative. The band is excellent and plays rich, swaying grooves to back up Odetta's signature vocal style. If you are a fan of the blues, the CD is a MUST HAVE for your collection.

I have been listening to and occasionally attending concerts by the recently departed Odetta for over forty years and she, despite her various illnesses in her latter years was still able to bring that big strong voice to her work as she did when I first heard her. A big strong strumming guitar added to the pleasure. And on this album some helpful and thoughtful backup work by her band members. Odetta was the consummate female interpreter of the old ballads that denoted the struggle of blacks and other at work and play in slavery times and later in wage slavery times. Religious sentiments about a better life in the hereafter because this life so is hell are also interwoven into some these ballads. It is hard today to get the full impact of that genre but I always noticed that audiences still responded to her gentle prodding to sing along.

There is an old expression-"What goes around, comes around". Nothing profound in that but it does point out that Odetta was very aware of her roots, of her debts to earlier black singers and influences and of the need to pay back those debts. The last part of her career included efforts in that direction, a prime example being this cover tribute to the legendary country blues singer and performer Leadbelly. On the face of it the storied rough and ready life of an old time rural country blues singer caught up in a violent and unforgiving world that included a southern prison and the rather proper upbringing of a modern city-bred and educated woman would not seem a match that makes musical sense. However, go back to the beginning of this paragraph and the part about roots and debts. That, my friends is the link, the eternal binding.

That said, Odetta does not try, like many an urban folkie of the 1960's and others to imitate, Leadbelly's style, manner and mistakes but hones her own renditions and gives them her own interpretation. That is the true way to honor one's forbears. Thus, although not every song here makes you want to throw away your old Leadbelly albums there are many more hits than misses. The hits- a very upbeat, carib-influenced rendition of the Leadbelly theme song, "Goodnight, Irene"; a very political take (highlighting Jim Crow racism) on "Bourgeois Blues" and "Easy Rider" (also known as "C.C. Rider"). The misses- "Midnight Special"; "How Long" and "Rock Island Line". Overall though a nice tribune from one legendary singer to another.

Odetta was a treasure - not just an icon but also a profound and humble interpreter of how this music functioned to change us and this country.