This album captures the mononymous singer at the height of her fame and acclaim, as her forceful renditions of traditional folk tunes and work songs overlapped with the commercial folk music revival and helped soundtrack the Civil Rights Movement. Odetta was playing at the storied New York concert hall more or less annually at this point, sharing many of the classics that had already become her signatures with characteristic intensity. The singer perennially resisted ornamentation beyond her own spectacular singing. She was accompanied by herself on guitar as well as bassist Bill Lee, using those minimal tools to bend each tune to fit her own idiosyncratic sound. Sometimes, as on “Another Man Done Gone,” Odetta sang a capella besides the sound of her own clapping. Such was her strength as a vocalist that she could captivate a 1,500-seat theater completely on her own. Major commercial success still eluded Odetta at this juncture, despite the many more famous artists who billed her as an influence, and the substantial audience she had built. Her instrument, refined with nearly operatic precision, was different from the gentle crooning of The Kingston Trio or the uptempo, almost childlike harmonies of Peter, Paul and Mary. Instead, Odetta’s singing was uncompromising and perceived as almost confrontational—avant-garde and traditional all at once in its range and rhythm. Awe was the standard response to her vocal fireworks, yet the singer was not only somber: Her humor is evident on this live album, both in her various song choices and in her banter. The strength and feeling that permeate most of her performances, though, can be read as a kind of resistance—a rebuke of centuries of minstrelsy and in its place, an earned seriousness conveyed with singular talent.