Sometimes I Feel Like Cryinae

Sometimes I Feel Like Cryinae

As far as British record buyers are concerned, their only exposure to Odetta is as one half of a duo with Harry Belafonte on the childrens song Theres A Hole In My Bucket, which became a minor hit in 1961. This lone chart appearance does Odetta a disservice, for even at that point she was widely acknowledged as the Queen of American folk music. Commencing her career in 1944, Odetta would draw her repertoire from the vast catalogues of folk, blues, jazz and spirituals and turn in commanding performances on all of them. Her blues career effectively started in 1962, shortly after her switch of record labels to RCA. There she would record Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin, her label debut, and whilst there is a distinct folk feel to some of the material, all of it is injected with the blues. And if there is also a hint of jazz, that too is deliberate, with the likes of Dick Wellstood (piano), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Buck Clayton (trumpet), Tedell Saunders (harmonica) , Leonard Gaskin and Abdul Ahmed Malik (bass) and Panama Francis (drums) providing musical accompaniment. Of all her albums (eighteen studio recordings during the course of her career), this is probably the most satisfying and therefore the most compelling. Odetta always thought of her voice as her instrument, and here, with a range that runs from coloratura to baritone, it is allowed to shine.