Ian Zack

Gary Davis was a blind blues and gospel guitarist who was born in South Carolina. He began as a street musician in the Carolinas and later lived and played in New York. Before reading Say No to the Devil I didn't know anything about him. Davis was known for his unique mastery of the guitar. His blues style was an influence on many musicians including members of the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones and many others. Many of his songs were hits when played by other musicians including Peter Paul and Mary and Dave Van Ronk. He did not receive recognition for his work until late in his life. The folk revival of the 50s almost passed him by and he was much better appreciated in Europe than he was in his native country. In addition to his performance as a musician he was ordained as a Baptist minister and he gave guitar lessons in his home. The list of well known musicians who took lessons from Gary Davis surprised me. One of his students was Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. This book was one of the monthly free e-books from the University of Chicago Press.… (altro)

Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zack is a long overdue biography of a powerful artist and activist.

It surprises me just how much she has been forgotten by the public at large. Within the folk community she remained an important figure and among musicians of all genres she has always been an inspiration. But somehow, unless you had her records and still put them on occasionally, she was largely forgotten. This biography goes a long way toward correcting the fickle oversight of general music fans.

I was fortunate to have seen her twice and even though I had several of her albums nothing could compare to the power of her voice and the strength of her presence on stage. Perhaps I was moved so much because I was familiar with some of her history, but that could only account for so much.

This book fills in the large gaping holes in my knowledge of her and her life, I was, like most fans, more familiar with her music. Because her music was largely in service to the civil rights movement and humanitarian struggles, I knew a little. Zack manages to present a balanced biography while at the same time illustrating the ways in which Odetta far surpassed her contemporaries as well as those she inspired.

I highly recommend this to music lovers, folk music fans, those wanting more background on the civil rights movement, and those seeking inspiration in our current difficult times with an evil regime destroying the country through hatred and bigotry.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.… (altro)

In 1978 my husband and I went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Our interest in folk rock turned into a deep love of folk music.

We attended concerts around Philly and bought recordings and listened to WXPN on the radio, discovering favorite singers.

One name we heard was Odetta, Odetta, and we knew she was a queen who had once ruled and was still worshipped.

I was a child in the 1950s, cushioned in my working class white neighborhood, unaware of things beyond my front door when Odetta was breaking into songs that stirred souls and feed movements and engendered a whole generation of singers whose names filled the airwaves of my sixties teenage years.

I knew so little about her.

Ian Zack's Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest is a wonderful biography of Odetta that presents her life, her art, and her legacy.

Odetta's amazing voice spurred teachers to encourage training and her mother scrimped to find the funds for voice lessons. After high school, Odetta worked menial jobs days and studied European classical music nights, singing in the Verdi Requiem and Bach's Mass in B Minor. Odetta loved opera and art songs but knew her career options were nil because of her color.

Odetta was cast for a revival of Yip Harburg's Finian's Rainbow in 1950 which led to her work with Turnabout Theater Jr.

Folk music was the new big thing, The Weavers success spurring an interest in folk songs. Friends took Odetta to hear a concert including Lead Belly songs and it "touched the core of me," she said. It changed the twenty-year-old's life.

The shy girl whose voice was a powerful instrument sang with her eyes closed as she inhabited the songs of her people.

She eschewed straightening her hair, cutting it short and leaving it natural, unwittingly engendering a movement.

Pete Seeger became her biggest fan and promoter. Generations claimed Odetta as their spiritual mother including Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Carly Simon, The Kinks, Grace Slick, and Janis Ian.

There are so many interesting stories in these pages. Odetta was on the TV Western Have Gun--Will Travel because Richard Boone was a fan. The script was a "clear endorsement of black rights," Zack writes.

With the arrival of the Beatles, popular music took a new turn and Odetta struggled to attract the new audience--basically, my generation. She had a series of flops. Her love life had its ups and downs, mostly downs, with a failed marriage and unsustainable relationships.

And yet with age, she became more comfortable with herself, confident on stage, celebrating her African American heritage. President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities, confessing that she had inspired him as a boy.

I enjoyed this biography as a vehicle for learning more about this iconic singer and the role of folk music in American history. It was also a nostalgic trip 'down memory lane', recalling the first time I heard many of the artists who inform the story.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through Edelweiss. My review is fair and unbiased.… (altro)