K's Super-Cheeky Memphis Methodist Mash-Up Mass 
Happy Birthday Odetta Holmes  * December 31/1930
† December 2/2008
& the great Ellas Otha Bates aka 
 Bo Diddley * December 30/1928  -  † June 2/2008


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.

She became a 2024 inductee to the Blues Hall of Fame.

Gotta Be Me - Happy Birthday Odetta & Bo !

K.L.U.B.