NPR, or National Public Radio in the United States, once ranked this album, It's a Mighty World, by folk singer Odetta Holmes as number 41 is its list of the 150 greatest albums made by women. This studio album was recorded in 1964.In describing this album, Michele Myers of the KEXP-FM radio station wrote:
During her fifty-year career as an American folk icon, Odetta Holmes was a singer, guitarist, actress and activist who inspired generations of folk, blues and rock musicians. Exuding intelligence, outrage and hope, the 1964 album It's a Mighty World showcases Odetta as a folk original. Fans of Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and (most notably) Bob Dylan may be shocked to hear guitar and vocal arrangements usually credited to those musicians on this record in their original form. In context of her struggles as an African-American woman in a brutally oppressed time, Odetta believed in free will. The might of her truth and persistence, particularly on this album, is undeniable. On it, Odetta leads the listener through powerful melodic histories of the oppressed, including old spirituals, prison camp and slavery songs, transforming them into anthems of liberation. Odetta said she read in her elementary school books that slaves were "happy and singing," so when she discovered folk music, her intention was to rewrite false and oppressive history. The words of folk music helped to voice her and others' hatred of oppression, and she once said: "It got to a point that doing the music actually healed me." Many of what she called her "interpretations" (Odetta did not often compose) became part of the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement of the '60s, inspiring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to name Odetta the "Queen of American folk music." Yet another mark of Odetta's genius is that most of these recordings still feel relevant, thanks to her unique guitar work and her vast vocal range, which soars through a variety of styles from field calls to operatic to bluesy.
The liner notes of this album carried quotes from many sources that had written about Odetta previously. The New York Times said of Odetta at the Newport Folk Festival, "The focus of the first concert was on Odetta whose mahogany hued sonorous voice offered what this listener felt was the crowning performance of the weekend." The New York Herald Tribune said, "She makes her words understood - and, there is thunder to their meaning and depth and power and punch." Variety magazine said, "....as direct and powerful as a blow torch, as deep and resonant as an old master viol....Odetta goes off to thunderous applause." And the Miami Herald wrote, "She stepped back an extra foot from the microphone and turned loose her two octave voice in full power. It left the audience stunned."
If you ask me, the only modern equivalent I can think of which comes close to Odetta's voice is that of Tracy Chapman singing Talkin' Bout a Revolution or Baby Can I Hold You from her seminal self-titled album of 1988.
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