Legendary Performer Odetta Honoured with 2006 Winnipeg Folk Festival Achievement Award

Contact: Catherine Mannarino
631-754-8725

The Winnipeg Folk Festival is proud to announce that legendary folk musician & M.C. Records artist Odetta has been named the recipient of the 2006 Winnipeg Folk Festival Achievement Award, to be presented December 7, 2006, at the Festival's annual Winter Wassail. Odetta will be in attendance to accept the award, and will give a short performance at the event.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival Achievement Award was established to recognize outstanding accomplishment in performance, composition and innovation in folk music, and to recognize a contribution to the continued thriving and public awareness of the genre. Nominees must have performed at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. The winner is presented with $10,000 and a commemorative award. The two previous winners are Loreena McKennitt (2004) and Bruce Cockburn (2005).

Odetta's latest recording is a live holiday collection titled Gonna Let It Shine released in October 2005. Incomparable folk and blues great Odetta gives a superlative performance on Gonna Let It Shine, a collection of spirituals, released on M.C. Records. The album was recorded live in the music hall at New York City's Fordham University. Influential public radio station WFUV sponsored the evening's concert and the station's music director Rita Houston hosted the show. The Holmes Brothers and pianist Seth Farber support Odetta on the 16 tracks, most of which are from the African American Christmas song tradition, with additional selections from the spirituals and prison song repertoire.

Spanning folk, blues and gospel, Odetta is known as "The Queen of American Folk Music"—a name bestowed by none other than Martin Luther King, Jr.—and her body of work has influenced countless musicians, including Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin.
Odetta's resumé reads like a history of modern folk music, stretching back to the coffee-houses of 1949 San Francisco, through the blossoming of African-American–influenced popular music in the 1950s, through the civil rights movement—she sang, among other places, at the 1963 March on Washington—right up to the present day. Odetta has never stopped making music, with her most recent album, Gonna Let It Shine, a live concert recording, appearing in 2005.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival is thrilled to present Odetta with the Winnipeg Folk Festival Achievement Award. Odetta entertained and inspired audiences at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1978, 1981 and 1985.

Odetta will accept the award on Thursday, December 7, 2006, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Winter Wassail.

The Winter Wassail is the Festival's annual celebration of the music and revelry that marks the winter season. This year, it takes place at the Winnipeg Convention Centre on December 7, with festivities starting at 5:30. The event includes dinner, live music, a silent auction and the presentation of the Winnipeg Folk Festival Achievement Award.


Tickets are $125. Call the Winnipeg Folk Festival at (204) 231-0096, for tickets or for more information.

Reviews of Gonna Let It Shine

The Greatest Modern Gospel CD? Quite possibly – Real Blues

The celebrated folk singer applies those gorgeous pipes to a gospel-soul telling of the Christmas story with as much spirit as you could ask for. Listeners will find it hard not to get caught up in the joy of the moment. --Los Angeles Times

Gonna Let It Shine is a rousing and moving performance, inspirational any month of the year. --Hal Horowitz, All Music Guide

Jazz/blues/gospel maven Odetta weaves great songs like "This Little Light of Mine," "Down by the Riverside," "Somebody Talking 'bout Jesus" and even "The Midnight Special" into a powerful Christmas narrative. --David Hinkley, New York Daily News