participants included Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Geoffrey Holder, Steve Earle, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Peter Yarrow, Maria Muldaur, Tom Chapin, Josh White Jr. (son of Josh White), Emory Joseph, Rattlesnake Annie, the Brooklyn Technical High School Chamber Chorus, and videotaped tributes from Tavis Smiley and Joan Baez. Legacy Odetta influenced Harry Belafonte, who "cited her as a key influence" on his musical career; Bob Dylan, who said, "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. . . . [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record"; Joan Baez, who said, "Odetta was a goddess. Her passion moved me. I learned everything she sang"; Janis Joplin, who "spent much of her adolescence listening to Odetta, who was also the first person Janis imitated when she started singing"; the poet Maya Angelou, who once said, "If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time"; John Waters, whose original screenplay for Hairspray mentions her as an influence on beatniks; and Carly Simon, who cited Odetta as a major influence and told of "going weak in the knees" when she had the opportunity to meet her in Greenwich Village. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Odetta at number 171 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Discography Filmography See also James Chaney References External links Odetta's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project AP Obituary in The New York Times Windsor now 1930 births 2008 deaths Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama Guitarists from Alabama Belmont High School (Los Angeles) alumni Los Angeles City College alumni Activists for African-American civil rights 20th-century African-American women singers African-American guitarists American blues singers Fast Folk artists Fantasy Records artists RCA Victor artists Tradition Records artists Vanguard Records artists United States National Medal of Arts recipients 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American women guitarists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women African