Odetta Holmes, the classically skilled blues, gospel and folk singer who made use of her strong, dusky and rich voice in order to champion the music of African America and the civil rights concerns for about half a century or more, recently died at the age of 77. The singer was admitted in the Lenox Hill Hospital, New York for some checkup in the month of November but ultimately suffered the problem of kidney failure. She left this world on Tuesday due to a heart disease, as reported by Doug Yeager, the singer’s manger.
Odetta Holmes gained due popularity and was among the beloved artists in folk music as a result of her range that included the 19thC spirituals and slave songs along with the 20thC topical ballads of the folk icons like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Odetta was believed to have influenced the artists like Joan Baez, Tracy Chapman, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan. Even Dylan once commented that the very first thing which changed him to fold music was Odetta. From this blues, gospel and folk singer, Dylan moved further to Harry Belafonte.
Odetta’s affinities for the traditional folk songs of African America was definitely a hallmark of her bright and long career as well as with a great voice that could conveniently sweep from husky, dark notes to the delicate register notes. The singer took birth in Birmingham on 31st December’ 1930 and lost her father at a very young age. Then at the age of 6, she shifted to Los Angeles with her sister, stepfather and mother and took the last name of Zadock Felious, her stepfather. Also, even though Los Angeles did not suffer the pangs of racism as in the Deep South, Odetta faced some indignities that came along with being a female of black origin.
