Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

| type = studio

| artist = Odetta

| cover = Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues CD cover.jpg

| alt =

| released = {{start date|1956|11}}

| recorded = San Francisco, California,
September 1956

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Folk, blues, vocal, calypso

| length = 45:14 (reissue)

| label = Tradition
TLP 1010 (LP)

| producer = Dean Gitter

| prev_title = The Tin Angel - Odetta & Larry

| prev_year = 1954

| next_title = At the Gate of Horn

| next_year = 1957

| misc = {{Extra album cover

| header = Original cover (1956)

| type = studio

| cover = Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues original cover 1956.jpg

| border =

| alt =

| caption = The vinyl cover of Ballads and Blues

}}

}}

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r89338|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]

}}

Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues is the debut solo album by American folk singer Odetta. It was released in November 1956 through Tradition Records.{{cite book |last1=Zack |first1=Ian |title=Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest |date=2020 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-080703532-0 |pages=56–59 |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621094/odetta-by-ian-zack/}}

Like much of Odetta's early work, Ballads and Blues combines traditional songs (e.g. spirituals) with blues covers. Some songs on this album were also recorded for Odetta & Larry's 1954 album The Tin Angel.

The initial vinyl release has tracks 1-8 as side A, then tracks 9-16 as side B (the "Spiritual Trilogy" being counted as one track, a medley). The "enhanced" CD version of this album, released in 2005, contains four bonus tracks and has a slightly different cover with a different photo of the singer. Some tracks are included on the Collectables re-release The Best of Odetta.

Bob Dylan singled this album out as one of his favorites by Odetta; indeed, it was albums like this that inspired him to play folk music instead of rock 'n' roll.[http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interw/play78.htm Playboy interview with Bob Dylan, 1978]

In 2021, the album was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.{{cite web |title=National Recording Registry Adds 'Rhythm Nation' Among 25 New Selections |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-21-015/national-recording-registry-adds-rhythm-nation-among-25-new-selections/2021-03-24/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=10 April 2021}}