Odetta, the classically trained folk, blues and gospel singer who used her powerfully rich and dusky voice to champion African-American music and civil rights issues for more than half a century ...

NORTH ADAMS — Gina Coleman vividly remembers when she met her idol, Odetta Holmes, the renowned folk singer and civil rights advocate who took the genre by storm during the 1960s and 70s. She ...

In 1937, Odetta Felious Holmes moved from Birmingham, Alabama, to Los Angeles. Only six, she was already bigger than the other kids when she arrived in East Hollywood with her mother, Flora, and her ...

When Barack Obama won the US presidential election last month, he had no doubts about who he wanted to sing at his inauguration. By then confined to a wheelchair and fighting heart disease, Odetta – ...

Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, has died. She was 77. Odetta died Tuesday of heart disease at Lenox Hill ...

Legendary blues and folk singer Odetta is marking her 75th birthday with a live performance CD called Gonna Let It Shine: A Concert for the Holidays. She tells Tony Cox about the collection of ...

“If I had to pick one person responsible for the establishment of the Newport Folk Festival in 1959,” said the festival founder George Weing, “it would be Odetta.” After hearing her album Odetta Sings ...

Odetta, who died on December 2 aged 77, was one of the most influential singers to emerge during the renaissance of American folk music in the 1950s. 03 December 2008 • 1:56pm Odetta gave life to the ...

In 1959, Harry Belafonte produced and starred in a live prime-time special that he envisioned as a musical portrait of black America. He had the box-office clout to call the shots, which included an ...

Odetta died Tuesday of heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital, said her manager of 12 years, Doug Yeager. She was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure about three weeks ago, he said. In spite of ...