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Contact: Catherine Mannarino
631-754-8725syndicated radio program Prairie Home Companion. The show will
This weekend you can check out a performance by Odetta on the syndicated radio
program Prairie Home Companion. The show will broadcast live on December 23. If you're not sure which station station in your area carries the show, you can check out you can check out http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/stations/
Earlier this month Odetta received a Grammy nomination in the Traditional Folk Category
for her live holiday collection titled Gonna Let It Shine, A Concert For The Holidays
. This marks Odetta's second Grammy nomination in three releases for M.C. Records. Her first was 1999's Blues Everywhere I Go. Odetta was also a guest vocalist on Ladies Man,
the 2004 Grammy nominated recording by Pinetop Perkins.
Mark Carpentieri, owner of M.C. Records and producer of the release said "The night we recorded this concert she
was singing as well as I have ever heard her. I'm glad that was captured on the recording and it resonated with the public. She is such a great artist!"
Gonna Let It Shine is a live holiday collection 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
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. Odetta's longtime piano player Seth Farber arranged all the songs on the recording.
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 Concert For The Holidays
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
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