A free Odetta download

As you all know, I like searching the internets for the best free (and legal) music downloads out there. Over the past 10 months, I’ve linked to more than 180 FREE MP3s.

Today’s freebie is the coolest ever. For one thing, it’s 28 minutes long! It’s so long, I can’t stream it all on my Vox blog. (Vox limits the size of audio uploads.)

It’s a live performance by the legendary folk singer Odetta. Her 1996 set at the Kerrville Folk Festival is available on a budget CD called “Odetta.” (It was originally released under the title “To Ella.”)

The 28-minute track – “Suite: Ancestors 1” – is an extended medley. Click here to hear a 13½-minute excerpt which combines the prison songs “Another Man Done Gone” and “Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos”... the slave lullaby “All the Pretty Horses”... the “white spiritual” (as Odetta and others call it) “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”... and the folk ballad “900 Miles.”

The complete track – which you can download by clicking the title below – also contains “Red Clay Country,” “Oh Shenandoah,” “I Just Can’t Keep From Cryin’ Sometimes” and “I Be’s Troubled.” Nothing but Odetta and her guitar. It is quite breathtakingly beautiful.

For this gift, all thanks are due to Silverwolf Records and IODA Promonet.

“Suite: Ancestors 1” (MP3)
Album available at iTunes Music Store
Album available at eMusic
Album available at Amazon