Bob Dylan famously said he traded his electric guitar for an acoustic the moment he heard Odetta. (He might have had June Ritchie and the others he was ripping off in mind too!)

Janis Joplin imitated her. Considered the voice of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. crowned her "The Queen of American Folk Music".

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she moved to Los Angeles as a child and actually began formal operatic training at the age of thirteen.

So she had this, classically trained vocal power. She channeled that vocal control directly into her work folk, spirituals, and blues.

Was really great going through her back catalogue. For the archive, I went with "Wade in the Water" and "Gallows Pole".

The first is about liberation and is widely believed to have served as a coded message on the Underground Railroad, instructing escaping slaves to step into the water to throw tracking bloodhounds off their scent.

Wade in the Water by Odetta

Then there is "Gallows Pole,". I also have Lead Belly's version in the archive. It is a tense, driving folk-blues narrative about a condemned woman frantically pleading with her family to bring enough silver or gold to bribe the hangman. It is gritty, urgent, and exactly what I want!

Gallows Pole by Odetta

Cillian Murphy did a brilliant series for BBC 6 music called Limited Edition. He went for Every Night when featuring Odetta which shows another side. She had such amazing versatility there is definitely not one song that can capture her.

Every Night by Odetta

But for me Odetta is the sound of raw, genuine, undiluted authenticity. Just brilliant.