One of the more commercially successful albums of Odetta’s mostly commercially unsuccessful career, this 1963 collection of folk songs is softened slightly by the presence of Greenwich Village icon Bruce Langhorne on guitar and jazz bassist Victor Sproles. In contrast to most of her previous outings, the album’s opener “900 Miles,” for example, is almost danceable, as is her bright signature take on “This Little Light of Mine”—both given levity by the bigger backing band and accompanying groove. Odetta’s usual collection of traditional tunes included a couple of anomalies: a buttoned-up version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” (she would record an entire Dylan tribute album a couple years later) and a jazzy take on the traditional song “This Little Light of Mine,” which was already well on its way to becoming a protest anthem. The latter would become one of her signatures, a timeless, exuberant expression of liberation. It is now associated with children’s music as well as social justice movements, but another entry on the album actually addresses children specifically: “Why Oh Why,” a humorous ode to kids who won’t go to bed. The minimal acoustic ensemble sounds like an orchestra by comparison to Odetta’s personal precedent; unsurprisingly, it comes nowhere near to overpowering her singular voice. Instead, it just adds a barely perceptible gentleness to her previously stark recording style. There is a barely perceptible level of pop polish to this record, but it doesn’t come at the expense of deep feeling: “I Never Will Marry,” “Shenandoah,” and “All My Trials,” another popular protest folk song, show Odetta at her potent best. Sings Folk Songs has real range, flaunting Odetta’s skill across blues, work songs, traditional songs, and hymns of different tempi and feel—a recorded blow to anyone who might dare write her off as one-dimensional.

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