Nobody could sing like Odetta and her arrangements were fantastic. Woody Guthrie wrote this classic but nobody could put it over so beautifully as Odetta. Heard her through her youth (& mine) and last heard her just before she passed and she could still sing anyone else under the table.
She changed the lyrics for this line: My land I'll defend with my life if need be. She said instead: Travel this road until death sets me free. I believe due to racism she experienced in her life she didn't want to die for America like Woody Guthries had wanted..
Odetta was the greatest. Saw her once many moons ago. We lost one of the great voices of American music. Woody's great song as performed like no one else has recorded it before or since.
It's a mighty hard row my poor hands have hoed My poor feet have travelled this hot dusty road Out of your dustbowl and westward we roam Through deserts so hot and through mountains so cold I've wandered all over your green, growing land Wherever your crops are, I'll lend you my hand On the edge of your cities, you'll see me and then I come with the dust and I'm gone with the wind California, Arizona, I've worked on your crops And northward up to Oregon to gather your hops I've dug beets from the ground, I've cut grapes from the vine To set at your table that white sparkling wine Green pastures of plenty from the dry desert ground From the grand Coolie dam where the waters run down In every state of this union we migrants have been We work on the land and we'll fight until we win It's always we ramble, that river and I All along your green valleys I'll work 'til I die Travel this road until death sets me free 'Cause pastures of plenty must always be free
"I come with the dust and I am gone with the wind." Odetta's wonderful 1960 cover of "Pastures of Plenty", a song written by Woody Guthrie in 1942, from the album "Ballad for Americans and Other American Ballads", released on the Vanguard label. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5vfqgXnzd0k.html You can listen to Woody's original version of the song here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pQ5zA368EJs.html
I know I will seem to be an « heretic » lol, but according to me, Odetta just sang the best version of this standard !!! 🤩🤩🤩❤️ sorry for Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and all the others 😊
My mother and her friend sat behind Odetta on the city bus during the Van City Folk Festival. I just wish I'd of sent her out with a record to autograph. Just kidding. And I would've only been 12 years old. Ha!
Woody bangs away solidly in C. Odetta plays it in F#minor with a simple chord change toward the end of the verse. I hear it in Am with a hammer on like a Joan Baez riff and a quarter note worth of a Dm. If that's too boring you can go to and E7 quickly in the middle. I also played around with playing C under the verse and going to the Am between the verses. Have fun.
