Customer Reviews

Sings Ballads & Blues: The Classical Recordings

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2 star:		(1)
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This is the original song order for those of you that remember the original 1958 LP with some added bonus cuts from 1960 (from the Gate Of Horn LP I believe)and it's got the original funky red cover. The bonus here is the nice remastering job - sounds as good as the original vinyl did way back when, but I guess that's the point in this respectful reissue. It's also got the original liner notes from the original LP and some new updated notes. Very nice package.

This is high art crossed with superb performance and excellent production. Theatrical in ambition, beautifully produced recording. I presume Bill Lee is bassist here as he would be on the stereo Gate of Horn a year later, but he's down in the instrumental mix of this mono recording and the result is an integration of bass and guitar that is a much smoother sound than on the Gate of Horn recording. This has the quality, that nebulous magic that inspires emulation.

I've been listening to Odetta occasionally for 35 years now, and I'm amazed how bad the music is. She's a triple-threat: can't sing, can't play the guitar, and has not a scrap of understanding of most of the songs. Her reputation is based on glowing second-hand reports from other 60's folkies. If you want to hear these songs performed with passion and skill, buy Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, or Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits. Odetta is strictly for crazy hippie-girl fanatics.