Released in 1956, Odetta’s debut album heralded both the folk boom of the ‘60s and the early stirrings of the civil rights movement. Beyond its place in history, this album remains a work of uncommon emotional and artistic power. Odetta’s astoundingly deep voice and dramatic phrasing owes as much to the operatic style of Paul Robeson as it does to the raw blues of Leadbelly. Her renditions of “Deep Blue Sea” and “’Buked and Scorned” are at once stately and shiver inducing. Odetta puts aside her theatrical training to deliver tunes like “Another Man Done Gone” and “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” with a raw, wailing fervor. Whether she’s essaying a Western folk ballad like “Santy Anno” or catching the lilt of Caribbean music in “Shame and Scandal,” she treats her material with respect and insight. Most of all, it’s the sound of her singing that’s inescapably moving, especially when she interprets African-American spirituals like “Glory, Glory” and “Oh Freedom.” Sings Ballads and Blues went on to influence a generation of folk artists and to inspire those who fought for equality in the South and beyond. The album’s prophetic message still resonates a half-century on.