By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

Odetta performs Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at First Christian Church, 25th Street and University Avenue, for the Thresholds VII Arts Festival. Iowa native and pop-folk singer Susan Werner shares the bill. Tickets are $15-$35 through IowaTix.com. A soul food community dinner at he church precedes the concert at 6 p.m. Tickets for the meal are $10 for children 12 and under and $15 for adults. Call 255-2181. A number of other events are planned for Sunday at the church, including a gala multimedia concert by Odetta and Werner. Visit www.thresholdsfestival.com for a lineup of events.

Odetta carries on with message for peace

Whether they admit it or not, most folk musicians hope their art can create change, or at the very least, inform listeners or comfort them in times of trouble. Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Richie Havens — they were at the forefront of the folk music explosion of the 1960s that helped usher in a new social agenda for the country when it was in turmoil with civil unrest and engaged in an unpopular war. But it was folk music singer Odetta, perhaps more so than any of the aforementioned artists, who helped usher in the era of the ’60s counter-culture singer. A unique talent, now at the age of 77, she remains dedicated to spreading the gospel of peace through her music and activism.

“The work is so long and so hard and so multi-faceted that needs to be done in our everyday lives and neighborhoods,” Odetta said last week from her home in New York.

Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 31, 1930, and raised and schooled in Los Angeles starting at the age of 6, Odetta began studying classical music and voice at the age of 13. At 18, realizing even her hero opera singer Marian Anderson, couldn’t break through the color barrier, she joined the chorus of a road company tour of “Finian’s Rainbow.” While with the company in San Francisco, Odetta discovered the city’s folk music clubs and the rest is history.

It was Odetta’s 1956 album, “Odetta Sings Ballads & Blues,” that inspired Bob Dylan to trade in his electric guitar and amp for an acoustic guitar to become a folk singer. By the late 1950s, Odetta had starred at Carnegie Hall and appeared in film and on national television and would go on to record more than 45 albums that would garner two Grammy Award nominations.

Offstage, Odetta was an integral figure in the civil rights movement led at the time by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She sang at the 1963 march on Washington D.C., took part in the march on Selma and was anointed by King as the “Queen of American Folk Music.” Over the years, she has won numerous music and civil rights awards, including being honored by former President Bill Clinton at the White House with the National Medal of Arts & Humanities.

But in spite of her success, Odetta said her work is never done. When asked about her thoughts on the Iraq war, she answered, “I am for peace. Looking at history and all the years there has been wars it never made any sense and never does to me.”

Later this year, Odetta plans to record and release her first concert DVD and a second album of songs by Dylan. She said traveling is bit taxing at times, but she enjoys the interaction of playing live before audiences and sharing her message of hope and peace.

“It does tend to wear you down, but you can’t give it over to whatever forces that continue such negative processes,” she said. “We don’t have the luxury of getting too tired to fight for it.”

Zollo faces drug charges

Trailer Records owner/musician David Zollo made headlines in The Des Moines Register last week when the paper’s Iowa City bureau reported that he faces drug charges stemming from an arrest after he allegedly tried to purchase cocaine from an undercover police officer and had cocaine and prescription drugs in his car. The 38-year-old faces solicitation to commit a felony and two counts of possession of a controlled substance misdemeanor charges stemming from an April 20, 2007 incident. According to The Register, police were arresting a drug dealer and his cell phone kept ringing. When the officers answered the phone, Zollo asked to purchase heroin. An undercover officer later met Zollo at a McDonald’s parking lot where the officer sold Zollo simulated cocaine. Zollo admitted to officers he was trying to buy drugs and allowed them to search his car where they found cocaine and four Darvocet pills for which Zollo said he had no prescription. Zollo was not charged for the incident until Jan. 30. He told The Register he has since been through outpatient drug treatment. In the meantime, Zollo is honoring his dates and is scheduled to play Thursday at 8 p.m. at Bordo’s Eatery and Sauce, 1250 8th St., West Des Moines.

Scene notes

Country music singer Travis Tritt plays Prairie Meadows March 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets, $25-$40, are on sale now through Ticketmaster. … The Greater Des Moines Music Coalition released the lineup for its third annual Gross Domestic Product festival to be held April 4 from 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Performers in the State Room include Deified, Young Tripp, Steve Robinson and the Foundation, Finding the Warren, ONLY, Leap Year and North of Grand. The Grand Ballroom will host The Autumn Project, The Vandon Arms, Maxilla Blue, Radio Moscow, Death Ships, Dirty Little Rabbits and the Poison Control Center. Advance discount tickets, $10, go on sale today through IowaTix.com. … One of the funniest comedians of her generation, “The Queen of Mean” Lisa Lampanelli brings her outrageous comedy — a blend of Don Rickles, Archie Bunker and Richard Pryor, as seen on Comedy Central — to Hoyt Sherman Theater on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $34.75. … Popular mezzo-soprano Ruby Hinds performs a tribute to Marian Anderson, the first African-American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House, on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Sheslow Auditorium on the campus of Drake University. The concert is co-sponsored by the Civic Music Association and Thresholds Arts Festival. Tickets are $35 for adults and $15 for students. … “Unity Unplugged,” a benefit concert sponsored by Kids Against Hunger, will be held at the Marshalltown Coliseum on Friday from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. Twelve acts will perform in Marshalltown, including Cirrus Minor, Mr. Baber’s Neighbors, Thunderbird Kingsley and The Honeybees. Raffles and contests are included in the all-ages affair. Admission is $2 or two canned food items. … Pop-country music singer/guitarist Brad Paisley brings his “Bonfires and Amplifiers Tour” to Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30.75 and $46. Rodney Atkins and Chuck Wick open. … Christian rockers The Newsboys bring their “Go Tour” to the Val Air Ballroom on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and $31 day of show. Article One, newworldson and Rush of Fools open. … Young six- and 12-string finger style guitarist Michael Young plays the M-Shop in Ames on Saturday at 8 p.m. Admission is $11. … Also in Ames on Saturday, hip-hop dance troupe DecaDance performs at 7:30 p.m. at Stephens Auditorium. Tickets to see this lean and mean all-female cast are $15-$32.50. … Chicago-based prog-rockers Umphrey’s McGee play People’s Court on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25. The band is on tour to promote its new double-disc CD, “Live at the Murat,” recorded April 6-7, 2007, in Indianapolis. … John Doe will open the Wilco concert on March 9 at the Val Air Ballroom. Tickets are $30. … If Cupid’s arrow missed you on Valentine’s Day, you might want to check out She Swings, She Sways’ Web site. That’s where you can wallow in your own self-pity to the tune of “Six Sad Songs” recorded and released on Valentine’s Day. The Web site for the Iowa band is www.sheswingsshesways.com. … Sam Summers has booked two new shows at People’s Court: Unearth with openers Bury Your Dead, As Blood Runs Black, My Children My Bride and The Destro, March 31. And on May 8, it’s Grammy nominated As I Lay Dying with openers August Burns Red and Misery Signals. Tickets for each show are $15 and $17 respectively, and available through IowaTix.com. … Also coming to People’s Court: The BoDeans on April 18. CV

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