Odetta at the Gate of Horn

Tradition Records, 1957 (my rerelease is on Everest Records recently enough to include a ZIP code)

Here is an open-book quiz. Where was Odetta at the Gate of Horn recorded? A) At The Gate of Horn folk club in Chicago or B) at a recording studio in New York. Take your time; remember you can check the title of the record. If you’ve heard the record, you know it is a studio album which just happens to be named for a folk club. Marketing was strange in the ’50s.

I love Odetta’s voice. Some people might have wanted her to specialize in important songs, such as spirituals, gospel, and civil rights tunes; I love the way she did silly songs just as much, such as the children’s song about the fox raiding the hen house. She is bold enough to sing two Leadbelly tunes just like Leadbelly, and she doesn’t need to apologize. The liner notes and the label have them in the wrong order—there are many mistakes on liner notes if you look closely. The only time I gave notice on a job I sang bits from “Take This Hammer” for the two weeks. [By the end of my working days my employers gave me notice.] It’s a work song, I know that, but the manifest content of the lyrics is that the singer is getting out of prison (by dying).

Women were underrepresented in music during the vinyl years, and they are underrepresented in my record collection. I have a fair amount of Judy Collins and Grace Slick, Ella Fitzgerald and Lotte Lenya, but there isn’t much balance for the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, and Bob Seger. I’ll sneak in some Lydia Loveless, say, from streaming for balance.

How many songs use “vouchsafe” besides Green Sleeves? I don’t remember ever using it in conversation.