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Video: Odetta | Waterboy
Martin Luther King Jr. called Odetta “The Queen of American Folk Music.”
Odetta Holmes Felious (1930-2008) was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She aspired to be an opera singer, but when she heard folk music in San Francisco, she realized it was the kind of music that spoke to her. Arguably the greatest American folk singer of the twentieth century, Odetta has had an immeasurable influence on American music. In a 1966 Playboy magazine interview Bob Dylan said, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. That was in ’58 or something like that. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson.”
“Waterboy” appears on several of Odetta’s albums, and she performed it regularly. The song is built on the call “Water boy, where are you hidin’?” It is believed to be one of several water boy calls in cotton plantation folk tradition. Numerous artists have written and/or recorded their own versions of this African-American traditional song, including Fats Waller, John Lee Hooker, and Paul Robeson.
Running time: 4 minutes
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Odetta played a concert in Pittsburgh in the mid-to-late 1980s . . . pretty sure it was at Carnegie Music Hall. The concert was produced by Calliope House (forerunner of what’s now Calliope, Pittsburgh Folk Music Society). It’s memorable to me because I lived at Calliope House then . . (I was in my early 40s, more or less — younger than her by a few years) & because I picked her up at the airport. I took her to lunch in Oakland, at what’s now Union Grill — cause she was hungry & told me so right off the plane. She was a good conversationalist . . . good at drawing me out, interested in my story (recently divorced, a lawyer — part time, living with folk musicians). She insisted on buying lunch . . . an amazing powerful voice, magnetic performer.
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Great story, Mike.
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Upon some reflection, fwiw, I realize this Odetta appearance in Pittsburgh would have been around 1979-80.
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Oh I remember her. One of my folk song heroes. But for some reason I also remember my dad singing this?
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Yes, she’s a giant among folk musicians, but has fallen out of the public eye for whatever reason. I love her powerful voice! Michael Simms https://www.michaelsimms.info
Author of Nightjar Author of American Ash Founder of Autumn House Press Editor of Vox Populi
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