Joan Baez on Sierra Club Radio

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/sierra_club_radio/2008/12/sierra-club-radio-1262008.html

One More about Odetta

An appreciation from Jim Lehrer's News Hour, Dec. 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyvBvrD1r44

NY Daily News: Odetta Left Message of Hope

Odetta left message of hope

BY DAVID HINCKLEY, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, Thursday, December 4, 2008

Less than a week before she died, the city's much-loved singer Odetta urged her fans and admirers to keep the faith.

The Thanksgiving message, sent from the Lenox Hill Hospital bed where she died Tuesday of heart disease at 77, underscored her lifetime of commitment, in social activism and song, to what she called positive change.

"The world is trembling under the weight of many problems," she wrote, but she urged everyone to still give thanks for friends and community.

She was exhilarated, friends said yesterday, by the election victory of Barack Obama, whose ascension she considered the fruit of a half-century of activism in which she had played an unrelenting role.

She sang alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington, and she had hoped to return to sing at Obama's inauguration, according to her longtime manager, Doug Yeager.

She was known as a folk singer, though she recorded blues, rock, popular and classical music.
"I'm called a folk singer because it's short and easy, I guess," she said in 1987. "I don't mind. But I'm really a song interpreter. We have all kinds of songs going on within us."

With a voice that could range from a whisper to a roar, she became a major influence on artists from Harry Belafonte to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. John Waters saluted her stature in "Hairspray" with a beatnik played by Pia Zadora who purred, "When I'm high, I am Odetta."

She was nominated for several Grammys and awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1999.
Brought up in Los Angeles on popular and classical music, she also was drawn to topical folk songs and artists like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

"I learned black history from music," she said, and one of her life missions was to pass along those lessons.

One of her last appearances was in October, when she sang from a wheelchair for tens of thousands in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

She was a familiar figure in many places around New York, where she lived for much of her life at 110th St. and Fifth Ave.

On the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, she gathered a group of children atthe Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and told them they needed to tell grownups war is wrong.
Even if no one seems to listen, she said, it's important to raise your voice, and she led them in "This Little Light of Mine."

Married once years ago and divorced, she is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick of New York, and a son, Boots Jaffre of Fort Collins, Colo.

Yeager says a memorial service is planned for next month.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/12/04/2008-12-04_odetta_left_message_of_hope.html

TreeHugger Interviews Eliza Gilkyson

TreeHugger Interviews Eliza Gilkyson, Folk Music's Environmental Troubadour
by Trevor Reichman on 12. 6.08

Folk Music Troubadour, Eliza Gilkyson, is currently touring in support of her new release, "Beautiful World", an album which tackles environmental issues, and not timidly. Eliza Glkyson, who has toured with folk greats such as Patty Griffin and Richard Thompson and most recently had 2 songs covered by Joan Baez, offsets all of her touring with carbon credits and also uses a portable solar powered system to power her local shows in Austin, TX. But Eliza doesn't think that is doing enough. Read further for an exclusive interview with Eliza Gilkyson and her perspective on the the possibilities of green touring and a "great correction":

1)TH: At the moment, you are offsetting all of your touring with carbon credits as well as performing in your hometown using a portable solar powered system. What is the next step for you in your future of green touring ? Name one immediate, easily realized goal in your near future, and one extreme, very challenging, far-off, but attainable fantasy of yours in a further future? Don't hold back on this one. Anything goes.

Eliza: A small goal I want to reach by my next release is to use recycled cardboard for the cover. I am proud to say I was the first at the label to push for the jettisoning of plastic jewel cases. But on a larger scale, although I perform via solar when I can at home and practice restraint on the road, I worry about the trendy purchasing of carbon credits and green consumer choices as doing little more than assuaging the consciences of musicians so we can continue to live at ridiculous levels of privilege and advantage in a first world nation that feeds off the disadvantaged third world's resources, whether a group of us minimize our footprints or not. I have had to confront that in my own life just recently.

I consulted with a local solar company to take my house here in Austin off the grid entirely, and my consultant Neal Turley of Sustainable Waves had to remind me, although I could afford a system that was not on the grid, that the righteous thing to do is grid tie in a city so that you are actually giving back into the community. I was truly humbled by that remark, and have thought long and hard about how it illuminates the way I was conditioned to think in a capitalist economic system: as long as I have MY solar panels and MY storage batteries and MY ass is covered then everyone else can either sink or swim. This whole way of thinking is deeply ingrained in our culture via our infatuation with the "American Dream" fantasy, the whole "I-got-mine-now-you-go-get-yours" motivation that has bred an insane and unsustainable level of consumption, self absorption,and corruption in our country.

I see the danger of the green movement falling into another form of the same kind of self-centered thinking. You know, as long as I can use these efficient light bulbs, green products, and fill up my tourbus with biofuel I can still go out and make a ridiculous amount of guilt-free money and live in my oversized solar powered home(or homes) and drive my hybrid Lexus SUV and hey you can do that too and all's well with the world. But no, all is not well with the world. Just look at the stats around who is having a food shortage based on the biofuel demand.
I think it's important for us musicians to ponder the possibility that touring will not be an acceptable usage of any kind of fuel if the future holds the kinds of restrictions necessary for survival. Are we willing to just be the local musicians in the village without the glamorous dream of becoming the latest national whatever? These questions are confronting and possibly extreme, but they set in motion new thoughts on how communities can survive on a smaller scale. As an interesting alternative to touring, one might go have a look at Michael Nesmith's project, Videoranch. But of course we will need fuel to run all those servers.

the rest is at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/eliza-gilkyson-interview.php

12/7/08 Playlist

1. Robin & Linda Williams: Going, Going Gone (Buena Vista), Red House 213 www.redhouserecords.com
2. Todd Snider: The Ballad of Cape Henry (Peace Queer), Aimless www.toddsnider.net
3. Cosy Sheridan: The Canyon Rim (Eros), Wind River 4042 www.folkera.com/windriver
4. Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman: Battle Hymns (One Man Revolution), Epic 67546

5. Joan Baez (Grammy nominee): The Scarlet Tide (Day after Tomorrow), Bobolink / Razor & Tie www.razorandtie.com
6. Jackson Browne: Looking East (Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement), Hidden Beach www.hiddenbeach.com
7. Kathy Mattea (Grammy nominee): You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive (Coal), Captain Potato www.mattea.com

Interview with Laurie Lewis and Craig Smith, recorded 12/5/08 www.laurielewis.com
8. Laurie Lewis and The Right Hands: Texas Bluebonnets (Live), Spruce & Maple 2004
9. Laurie and Craig: Weevily Wheat (live)
10. Laurie and Craig: untitled song, written by Laurie and Scott Huffman (live)
11. Laurie and Craig: My Heart's Own Love (live)
12. Laurie: Wood Thrush (live)
13. Laurie and Craig: Willie Poor Boy (live)

Christmas give-aways!
14. Loreena McKennitt: Noel Nouvelet! (A Midwinter Night's Dream), Quinlan Road 12096 www.quinlanroad.com
15. Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer: The Ditchling Carol (American Noel), Signature Sounds 2011 www.signaturesounds.com
16. Mindy Smith: My Holiday (My Holiday), Vanguard 79838
17. Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven: O'Carolan's / Welcome Christmas (Evergreen), Compass 4470 www.compassrecords.com

18 & 19. Rick Lang and Friends: The Season of My Heart & Decorate the Tree with Love (The Season of My Heart), private

The Dreaded Folk Calendar over selections from Wagtail's "One Clear Moment," self www.wagtailmusic.com

A small remembrance of Odetta;
20. Jack O'Diamonds (Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues), Tradition 1004
21. Bourgeois Blues (Lookin' for A Home), M.C. Records 0044 www.mc-records.com
22. The Fox (To Ella), Silverwolf 012 www.silverwolfmusic.com
23. Maria Muldaur with Odetta and others: We Shall Be Free (Yes We Can!), Telarc 83672 www.telarc.com
24. Midnight Special (The Best of WoodSongs Volume Three), PoetMan www.woodsongs.com

It's Tom Waits's birthday:
25. Road to Peace (Orphans), Anti- 86677, radio promo

More Grammy nominees:
26. Dr. John and The Lower 911: Black Gold (City That Care Forgot), 429 Records www.429records.com
27. Marcia Ball: Peace, Love & BBQ (Peace, Love & BBQ), Alligator 4922 www.marciaball.com
28. Pete Seeger: If It Can't Be Reduced (At 89), Appleseed 1113 www.appleseedmusic.com
29. Peggy Seeger: Dink's Song (Bring Me Home), Appleseed 1106 www.appleseedmusic.com
30. Tom Paxton: Home To Me [Is Anywhere You Are] (Comedians & Angels), Appleseed 1105 www.appleseedmusic.com
31. Eliza Gilkyson et al: Peace Call (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174 www.redhouserecords.com

Love McCutcheon's "Christmas in The Trenches?"

In John's latest newsletter he talks about "a plan in the works for commemorating the events that inspired “Christmas in the Trenches” on December 24th, 2014, the one hundredth anniversary of the Truce.

"This is advanced warning that there will be an event at the site of the 1914 Christmas Eve Truce to commemorate one of the most courageous events ever to happen on a battlefield. Many musicians from all over the world are planning to attend. So save up your frequent flyer miles and keep checking the web site www.folkmusic.com, as we’ll have updates as the date approaches."

Odetta Dies at 77

From the New York Times, Dec. 3, 2008

By TIM WEINER
Published: December 3, 2008

Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 77.

The cause was heart disease, said her manager, Doug Yeager. He added that she had been hoping to sing at Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly influential recordings of blues and ballads, and became one of the most widely known folk-music artists of the 1950s and ’60s. She was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin.

Her voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington in the quest to end racial discrimination.

Rosa Parks, the woman who started the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Ala., was once asked which songs meant the most to her. She replied, “All of the songs Odetta sings.”

Odetta sang at the march on Washington, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement, in August 1963. Her song that day was “O Freedom,” dating to slavery days: “O freedom, O freedom, O freedom over me, And before I’d be a slave, I’d be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free.”

Odetta Holmes was born in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 31, 1930, in the depths of the Depression. The music of that time and place — particularly prison songs and work songs recorded in the fields of the Deep South — shaped her life.

“They were liberation songs,” she said in a videotaped interview with The New York Times in 2007 for its online feature “The Last Word.” “You’re walking down life’s road, society’s foot is on your throat, every which way you turn you can’t get from under that foot. And you reach a fork in the road and you can either lie down and die, or insist upon your life.”

Her father, Reuben Holmes, died when she was young, and in 1937 she and her mother, Flora Sanders, moved to Los Angeles. Three years later, Odetta discovered that she could sing.

“A teacher told my mother that I had a voice, that maybe I should study,” she recalled. “But I myself didn’t have anything to measure it by.”

She found her own voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her training in classical music and musical theater was “a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life,” she said.

“The folk songs were — the anger,” she emphasized.

In a 2005 National Public Radio interview, she said: “School taught me how to count and taught me how to put a sentence together. But as far as the human spirit goes, I learned through folk music.”

In 1950, Odetta began singing professionally in a West Coast production of the musical “Finian’s Rainbow,” but she found a stronger calling in the bohemian coffeehouses of San Francisco. “We would finish our play, we’d go to the joint, and people would sit around playing guitars and singing songs and it felt like home,” she said.

She began singing in nightclubs, cutting a striking figure with her guitar and her close-cropped hair.

Her voice plunged deep and soared high, and her songs blended the personal and the political, the theatrical and the spiritual. Her first solo album, “Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues,” resonated with an audience hearing old songs made new.

Bob Dylan, referring to that recording, said in a 1978 interview, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta.” He said he heard something “vital and personal,” and added, “I learned all the songs on that record.” It was her first, and the songs were “Mule Skinner,” “Jack of Diamonds,” “Water Boy,” “ ’Buked and Scorned.”

Her blues and spirituals led directly to her work for the civil rights movement. They were two rivers running together, she said in her interview with The Times. The words and music captured “the fury and frustration that I had growing up.”

Her fame hit a peak in 1963, when she marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and performed for President John F. Kennedy. But after King was assassinated in 1968, the wind went out of the sails of the civil rights movement and the songs of protest and resistance that had been the movement’s soundtrack. Odetta’s fame flagged for years thereafter.

In 1999 President Bill Clinton awarded Odetta the National Endowment for the Arts Medal of the Arts and Humanities.

Odetta was married three times: to Don Gordon, to Gary Shead, and, in 1977, to the blues musician Iverson Minter, known professionally as Louisiana Red. The first two marriages ended in divorce; Mr. Minter moved to Germany in 1983 to pursue his performing career.

She was singing and performing well into the 21st century, and her influence stayed strong.

In April 2007, half a century after Bob Dylan first heard her, she was on stage at a Carnegie Hall tribute to Bruce Springsteen. She turned one of his songs, “57 Channels,” into a chanted poem, and Mr. Springsteen came out from the wings to call it “the greatest version” of the song he had ever heard.

Reviewing a December 2006 performance, James Reed of The Boston Globe wrote: “Odetta’s voice is still a force of nature — something commented upon endlessly as folks exited the auditorium — and her phrasing and sensibility for a song have grown more complex and shaded.”

The critic called her “a majestic figure in American music, a direct gateway to bygone generations that feel so foreign today.”

20-minute docu-video of a recent interview:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/arts/music/03odetta.html?_r=1