Odetta at Club Helsinki
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., March 26, 2000)
The legendary folk-blues songster held court for nearly two hours before a
crowd packed in like sardines and ranging in age from 6 to well over 60.
While the audience seemed in large part comprised of those who were fans of
Odetta the first time around, when she achieved prominence during the first
wave of the late-‘50s folk revival, a recent surge of interest in the
venerable performer apparently attracted some new fans, as well as two
generations of Music Inn promoters spotted in the crowd (the singer made
several appearances at the famed Lenox venue in the late-‘50s).
And the singer didn’t disappoint those who came to revisit a part of their
past, or to touch a part that they may have missed, or to get in on a bit of
pop culture history now a mind-boggling near-half-century old.
Largely through the force of her considerable charisma, charm, and stage
presence, Odetta wove a web that lured in her listeners and didn’t let go.
She had them singing along at various times, especially on the old-time
Negro spirituals and anthems that bookended her program, which consisted
largely of folk- and pop-blues songs by the likes of Bessie Smith, Sippie
Wallace, Victoria Spivey and Leadbelly.
The 69-year-old Odetta, who left her guitar at home and instead was
accompanied by keyboardist Seth Farber, still has at her command an array of
striking vocal approaches, including whines, rasps, falsettos, growls,
laughs, yelps, hollers and a gluey, elastic melodicism.
She parceled these out frugally, however, and equally relied on the art of
recitation, made easier for her with the aid of lyric sheets, to which she
frequently referred throughout the evening. These recitations, such as her
version of Victoria Spivey’s “TB Blues,” replete with coughs and chokes,
reminded listeners that Odetta came to folk music, and the blues, from the
stage.
Her style is highly theatrical, and in performance she is as much actress as
singer. It’s a combination that doesn’t always serve the material well,
although it’s undoubtedly what people pay to see when they want “Odetta.”
Her program was made up in large part of material from her Grammy-nominated
album, last year’s “Blues Everywhere I Go,” which revisits the songbook of
the blueswomen, on songs including the title track, Sippie Wallace’s
“Trouble Everywhere,” Bessie Smith’s “Homeless Blues,” and Leadbelly’s
“Careless Love.”
Farber, who co-produced and arranged the album, provided florid backup on
the electric piano. His spirited, ornate accompaniment was a bit too jaunty
and bright, and one missed the sort of intimate, call-and-response dynamic
one gets when the singer accompanies herself on guitar.
Club Helsinki, on the other hand, is intimacy incarnate, and Odetta
notwithstanding, one could easily be forgiven for thinking he just stepped
down a flight of stairs into any of several Bleeker Street nightclubs. The
exposed brickwork, original paintings, found objects, and deco banquettes
exude a cavelike, homey, bohemian warmth, also reflected in the club’s wait
staff and management. It also recalls the pre-expansion-era Iron Horse of
Northampton, and, with its narrow passageways and accessible performance
space, the original, downtown New York Lone Star Café.
South County singer-songwriter Meg Hutchinson warmed up the crowd for Odetta
with a set of her original compositions. Close your eyes and you could
easily mistake Hutchinson’s infectious melodies and achy, affecting vocals
for any one of a number of her better-known peers, including Catie Curtis,
Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Jonatha Brooke and Shawn Colvin. In a short
time she has grown immensely as a performer, and she exudes a level of
confidence and ease that could easily propel her into their ranks.
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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